The Saints nearly scored as many runs as they had hits in their 5-0 win over Martin Luther College in game two of the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference postseason tournament on Thursday afternoon in Wade Stadium.

 

Six hits were efficiently converted to five runs for the offense while starting Saints pitcher Steve Gerten (West St. Paul, Minn./Henry Sibley HS) limited the Knights to nine hits and kept the No. 4 seed in the tournament off the scoreboard for his first complete game shut out of the season.

 

Senior catcher Mike Lewis (Esko, Minn./Esko HS) launched a two-RBI triple to the base of the wall in straight-away center field that brought home both Sean Claugherty (Oakdale, Minn./Tartan HS) and Darrin Carlson (Hermantown, Minn./Hermantown HS), then came in to score St. Scholastica's third run on an overthrow by the Martin Luther center fielder to give the home team a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

 

Both teams generated base-runners throughout the game but none threatened to cross the plate until the Saints pushed two more across in the bottom of the seventh.

 

Brian Marshik (Arden Hills, Minn./Mounds View HS ) had the only multi-hit game for the Saints while Jake Gaub (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./South St. Paul HS) picked up an RBI in the seventh inning.

 

Martin Luther's Greg Holzhueter and Tyler Morgan each collected two hits apiece while pitcher Zach Pudlo took the loss surrendering four earned runs and six walks while striking out only one.

 

Gerten's complete game included 10 strikeouts without a walk in helping push the Saints into the second round of the UMAC tournament where they'll face 4^th-seeded Northland College, winners over No. 2 Bethany Lutheran in the opening game of the tourney Thursday morning.

 

**SAINTS**