Cloquet Native Rogers Gets Huge Save To Help Propel Saints To UMAC Championship

May 10, 2012

Northland Sports Online

The CSS baseball team won twice at Wade Stadium on Thursday; cruising by the Northland Lumberjacks 8-1 and outlasting the Bethany Lutheran Vikings in dramatic fashion with a 10-8 victory to advance to the UMAC Championship for the 15th straight year.

After the loss in game one, the Lumberjacks (16-25) were eliminated by the Northwestern Eagles (25-15) in game three of the day. The Vikings (22-16) will take on the Eagles in an elimination game tomorrow for a chance to play the Saints in the championship.

Game one for the Saints started off with their only deficit faced all day as a leadoff double by Peter Aerts led to a Travis Hendrickson sacrifice fly to put the ‘Jacks in front 1-0 after the top of the first.

The Saints quickly tied it up in the bottom half when a Kyle Flagstad (Hinckley, Minn. /Hinckley-Finlayson HS) sacrifice scored Jesse Heaton (Heyworth, Ill. /Bloomington Central Catholic HS) to make it 1-1 after one.

The Saints followed up in the second inning with a couple more runs as Tom Juberian (Park Rapids, Minn. /Park Rapids HS) knocked in a run with a double and Heaton had an RBI-single of his own to make it 3-1 Saints after two innings of play.

The scoring quieted down until the Saints punished Northland in the fifth. The RBIs in the inning came from the bats of Flagstad, Kyle Moody (Maple Grove, Minn./Osseo HS ), Brandon Peterson (Burnsville, Minn./Apple Valley HS) and Jake Casareto (International Falls, Minn./Falls HS) as St. Scholastica put up five to make it an 8-1 lead.

The scoring was done for both teams after the fifth but the story of the day was Joel Wuorio (Two Harbors, Minn. /Two Harbors HS) on the mound for CSS. Wuorio gave up only five hits and one earned run while striking out five with no walks to earn his first collegiate complete game and fourth victory of the season.

Moody was the only Saint with more than one hit in the game as he went 3-4 with an RBI and one run scored.

The Saints victory set up a semifinal matchup with the Bethany Lutheran Vikings that turned out to be a thriller.

After Jake Nystrom (Fargo, N.D./Fargo North HS) pitched a perfect top half of the first inning, the Saints got the bats going right away.

With two outs in the bottom of the first, a single and stolen base by Flagstad set up an RBI-single from the bat of Moody. Casareto followed with an RBI-triple. A Juberian walk was then followed by a two-run double from the bat of Peterson to give the Saints an early 4-0 advantage.

After another shutout inning for CSS in the second, Flagstad knocked a single to score Parker Olson (Duluth, Minn. /Duluth East HS (Minn.-Duluth)) to give CSS a 5-0 lead.

The Vikings got a run back in the third but St. Scholastica answered with another run of their own to make it 6-1 after three.

The Viking offense began to spark in the fourth as Sam Stier knocked a two-run double to make the deficit just three for BLC.

CSS errors in the fifth would allow Bethany to score again and chip into the lead even more but the Saints answered with a run to keep the lead at three at 7-4 after five innings.

The Saints padded their lead a little in the seventh when Olson knocked in Peterson with an RBI-single as part of a three-run inning and CSS went up 10-4.

The eighth inning brought the drama as Nystrom was replaced by Ben Grieger (Waverly, Iowa/Waverly-Shell Rock HS) following an early inning walk. Grieger struggled with the Bethany batters as four runs would get across with only one out being recorded to make it 10-8 Saints. Thomas Rogers (Cloquet, Minn. /Cloquet HS) relieved Grieger and forced a dangerous batter in Adam Geiger to ground out to end the inning.

Rogers delivered in the ninth as well striking out two batters including the game ender to secure the four out save and a championship berth for the Saints as they took the semifinal game 10-8.

Peterson was the star from the plate for CSS in game two going 4-5 with a triple, two doubles, two RBIs and three runs scored. Olson was a perfect 3-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored.

Nystrom went 7 1/3 innings and gave up four earned runs while striking out four to improve to 7-3 on the season. Rogers earned his third save and has still allowed just one earned run in 21 2/3 innings of work this season.

The Saints (32-9) will await the winner of tomorrow’s early game between the Vikings and Eagles. First pitch of the elimination game will be at 1 p.m. at Wade Stadium with the championship game to follow at 4 p.m.

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