Box Score

McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Saint John's dropped its first game in the NCAA Tournament, 6-3, to No. 9/12 Concordia (Texas) on Wednesday, May 16, at the McMinnville (Ore.) Regional on the campus of Linfield College.

The Johnnies (29-15) will face Coe (Iowa) in an elimination game at 2 p.m. (noon PST) on Thursday, May 17.

SJU gained an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Sophomore Josh Groth (Fridley, Minn.) walked with one out, advanced on a wild pitch and took third on an error at shortstop off the bat of junior Joey Long (Belvidere, Ill./Rockford Boylan). Sophomore Justin Thompson (Chanhassen, Minn./Chaska) brought in Groth with a two-out, RBI single.

The lead was short-lived, however, as the Tornados (37-9) scored two runs, one earned, in the bottom half of the inning and added another on three hits in the third.

CU southpaw Scott Hays, a transfer from Division I Alabama, settled down to retire eight consecutive Johnnies following the run until Thompson registered his second hit of the game in the fifth inning.

Concordia added three more runs, two earned, in the seventh. Tyler Grygar started the inning with a double down the right-field line and Brent Schaekel reached on an error from Long, his second of the game. Schaekel then stole second and advanced another base, with Grygar scoring from third, on a wild pitch. Matt McManemin singled to plate Schaekel, stole second and advanced to third on a flyout. Collin Janssen singled to left field to increase CU's lead to 6-1.

Three straight one-out singles from freshman Aaron Pfaff (New Ulm, Minn./Cathedral), junior Connor Cline (Bloomington, Minn./Jefferson) and junior Max Forster (Minnetonka, Minn./Hopkins) loaded the bases in the eighth. A new reliever walked sophomore Dylan Graves (Mora, Minn.) to bring in a run before Cline scored on a fielder's choice off the bat of Groth to make it 6-3.

Senior Hayden Zimmerman (New Richmond, Wis.) fell to 7-3 on the year, allowing six runs (four earned) on five hits. He struck out three, walked three, hit two batters and threw three wild pitches in 6.1 innings. Junior Scott Schroeder (Richmond, Minn./Rocori) and freshman Collin Felhaber (North St. Paul, Minn.) combined for 1.2 innings of scoreless relief.

Thompson went 2-for-3 with an RBI to lead SJU, while Graves was 1-for-3 with a double and an RBI.

Hays allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits with six strikeouts in 7.1 innings to improve to 8-3 on the season.

Hits were even at six apiece. SJU pitchers induced 15 groundball outs, to just three flyouts, on the afternoon.