Box score

One game at a time.

That's how the Saints have had to approach each game at the NCAA Midwest Regional since losing their opener on Wednesday.

The 'one game' outlook is working like a charm, though, as they eliminated St. Thomas late Friday afternoon with a 7-1 win over the No. 13 Tommies.

St. Thomas entered the game facing elimination for the first time after losing their first game at the Regional earlier in the day to No. 8 Wis.-Whitewater. For the Saints? An elimination game was old hat for them as they first sent Knox (Ill.) College packing on Thursday then showed Carthage (Wis.) College the door in a 9-4 win immediately before facing off against the Tommies.

St. Scholastica (35-5) trotted out sophomore Steve Gerten (West St. Paul, Minn./Henry Sibley HS) to the mound to face the Tommies (34-9), the coaching staff hoping to get a solid six or seven innings from the hurler who entered the game with a 4-0 mark.

Perhaps Gerten felt underestimated as the Sibley HS product went out and gave his team a complete 9-inning victory allowing just one run while scattering seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts for his fifth win of the season without a loss.

At the plate the Saints got timely production from a few seniors who clearly don't want their season to end.

"A lot of times the end of a season comes down to how badly you want to keep playing," said head coach John Baggs. "[Senior] Blake Eller (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd HS) apparently really wants to keep playing," he added with a small chuckle.

A preseason D3baseball.com All-American outfielder selection, Eller continued his tear through the Regional with a 3-for-5 outing against the Tommies that included a huge 3-run home run in the fourth when the Saints and Gerten were clinging to a 2-0 lead.

Senior catcher Mike Lewis (Esko, Minn./Esko HS) obviously wants to keep playing, too, as he sent an Erik Olson pitch over the left field wall to lead off the fifth inning and extend the lead to 6-0.

Another elder, but not yet a senior, junior shortstop Kyle Wojtysiak (Proctor, Minn./Proctor HS), added to his stellar Regional with a 3-for-4 day, scoring once and collecting an RBI.

Eller, the lead off batter in the line-up, is batting a whopping .750 (12-for-16) at the Regional and has collected 10 RBI. Wojtysiak is 'chipping in' with a .462 (6-for-13) batting average in the eight-spot in the order for the Saints while putting on a show in the field with his glove.

For St. Thomas, catcher Reece Collins picked up the Tommies' lone RBI with a solo home run in the eighth, while second baseman Louie Salmen was the only St. Thomas player with more than one hit.

Olson (4-3) took the loss for the Tommies yielding six earned runs on 10 St. Scholastica hits, striking out four without allowing a walk over eight innings on the mound.

The St. Scholastica victory continues the Saints' historic run at the Regional as no team in the history of the program has reached an NCAA Regional championship game.

Saturday's Noon time game will be against the Warhawks from Whitewater who have a game in hand on the Saints in the championship bracket.

Whitewater is undefeated at the Regional, including their opening 7-4 win over the Saints, which means St. Scholastica has to beat the Warhawks twice on Saturday to claim the Midwest Regional crown.

The Regional champion earns their way to the College World Series which will be hosted this year at Time Warner Cable Field at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute, Wis., on May 23-27.