St. Paul Saints open 25th season by beating RailCats on two home runs

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.

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.

Autumn Humes threw a four-hitter for Harding (57-8).

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.

• 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.

• 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.