Video (00:54) : The St. Paul Saints opened their season Thursday night with a host of quirky touches that have made the team a hit with fans during their 25 years of baseball.
The St. Paul Saints began their 25th season with a 5-2 victory over the Gary SouthShore RailCats in front of an announced crowd of 8,294 on Thursday night at CHS Field.
The American Association game was scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning when Nate Hanson hit a three-run homer and Tony Thomas hit a two-run shot. Both home runs came off Gary starter Charle Rosario.
Mark Hamburger lost his shutout with two unearned runs in the ninth inning; fellow Mounds View graduate Seth Rosin struk out the final two batters for the save. Hamburger finished with eight strikeouts.
The four-game series continues Friday night.
MSU Mankato wins pitchers' duel
Amber Kral's homer in the top of the 10th inning enabled No. 6 Minnesota State Mankato to edge No. 2 Harding 1-0 on Thursday afternoon in the opener of a best-of-three NCAA softball super regional in Searcy, Ark.
Coley Ries pitched a three-hitter for the Mavericks (58-6); she struck out 10 and walked three. Earlier, Ries was named a top-three finalist for the NFCA Division II Player of the Year award. The native of Eagle Lake, Minn., leads all pitchers in her division in wins — she is 35-2 — and strikeouts with 413.
Gallery: Saints open their season with a flourish (or three)
Autumn Humes threw a four-hitter for Harding (57-8).
MSU Mankato has a 28-game winning streak.
Tommies fall in baseball
The St. Thomas baseball team lost to Adrian 5-2 in the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional in Whitewater, Wis. All the runs in the game were scored in the eight inning.
The Tommies (26-17) took a 2-0 lead on Sam Schneider's RBI single and Hunter Hart's sacrifice fly. The big hit for Adrian (34-11) in the bottom of the inning was Brian Guck's bases-loaded triple.
Henry DeCaster took the loss, giving up three runs on nine hits in seven-plus innings. Tommy Parsons improved to 12-1 on an eight-hitter He struck out eight and walked one.
Next St. Thomas will play either Macalester of Concordia Chicago in the losers' bracket at 1:15 p.m. Friday.
Etc.
• No. 7 Minnesota State Mankato defeated Central Oklahoma 4-0 on Dalton Roach's three-hitter in its NCAA Division II Central Region baseball opener in Emporia, Kan. Roach, now 10-1, struck out seven and walked two. Jordan Hart hit a two-run homer for the Mavericks (45-9) in the eighth inning; Dylan Dresel had an RBI double in the first.
• Augustana women's golf team is in a tie for seventh at the NCAA Division II national meet in Findlay, Ohio. The Vikings have a 36-hole total of 641. Augustana's Emily Israelson, of Staples, Minn., is tied for 10th place at 10-over 154.
• Eighteen individuals from the Gophers women's track & field team will compete in the NCAA West Preliminaries hosted by the University of Texas at Mike A. Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas, May 25-27. The 18 have secured 22 entries in 11 different events.
• The Gophers men's track and field program will send 13 competitors to the NCAA West Preliminaries in Austin. They will compete in nine events at the regional while decathlete Luca Wieland already has earned a spot in the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships from June 7-10 in Eugene, Ore.
