The St. Thomas softball team is returning to the Division III College World Series after beating top-seeded St. Olaf 3-0 for an NCAA regional title in Waverly, Iowa.
Kendall Hopkins and Kierstin Anderson-Glass combined on a three-hit shutout for the Tommies, who are 8-0 in postseason play and begin the CWS on Thursday in Salem, Va. Outgoing coach John Tschida is looking to guide the Tommies to a third D-III championship, joining the ones he guided them to in 2004 and '05.
The Tommies (32-8) began Sunday with a 4-3 comeback victory over the Milwaukee School of Engineering. St. Thomas scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning for the walkoff victory, with the winning run scoring on Bridget Armstrong's single.
Tschida announced last month he would not make the leap to D-I with the Tommies, saying he would return to St. Mary's, his alma mater, after his 21st season at St. Thomas is complete.
Division II, III baseball
Minnesota State Mankato (37-8), the NSIC regular-season and tournament champion, earned the No. 3 seed for the six-team NCAA Division II Central Region tournament and will open the competition against fourth-seeded Arkansas Tech at 11 a.m. Thursday in Warrensburg, Mo.
• MIAC regular-season champion St. Thomas (29-7) earned one of six at-large bids to the NCAA Division III baseball tournament. The Tommies will be the top seed in the Collegeville Regional and opens play against sixth-seeded Scranton.
Northwestern (St. Paul) will play host to the St. Paul Region as the No. 4 seed, opening play against third-seeded Misericordia. Fifth-seeded St. Mary's will play second-seeded Aurora (Ill.).
U baseball ends slide at 16
The Gophers baseball team scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to end a 16-game losing streak on Senior Day, beating Purdue 9-8 on Sunday at Siebert Field.
Seniors combined for five runs and eight of the 14 hits for the Gophers (5-29). Ronald Sweeny went 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBI, while fellow senior Gabe Knowles went 2-for-3 with two RBI.
Down 8-6 in the ninth inning, Brett Bateman hit a run-scoring single to pull the Gophers within one, Boston Merila tied it with an RBI single and Bateman scored the winning run on a wild pitch with the bases loaded.
The Gophers close out the season with four games next weekend in West Lafayette, Ind., where they will play Penn State twice and Purdue twice.
