Macalester vs. St. Thomas box scores: Game 1 | Game 2

Macalester beat defending NCAA Division III national champion and No. 1-ranked St. Thomas 5-2 in the first game of an MIAC doubleheader at UST behind another strong pitching performance by team ace James Murrey (Sr., Western Springs, Ill. / Lyons Township), who held the Tommies to six hits while striking out nine. In the nightcap, St. Thomas bounced back with a 5-2 win of its own.

The Scots had lost eight in a row against their neighbors to the west, the seven-time defending MIAC champions and traditional power, before Tuesday's first game. In a matchup of a pair of the Midwest Region's top pitchers, Mac tallied all five of its runs when it batted around in the second inning off St. Thomas All-American Matt Schuld, who came into the game with a 24-3 career record.

In the decisive second inning, Mitch Glasser (So., Chicago, Ill. / The Latin School) led off with a single and scored on a Robert Williams (So., West Covina, Calif. / Northview) double down the left field line. After a couple Schuld strikeouts, the Scots continued their rally with an RBI Nathan Rubin (So., Venice, Fla.) single, a two-run Graham Brown (So., Annandale, Minn.) double to right, and a run-scoring single by Devin English (Sr., Annapolis, Md. / DeMatha).

Meanwhile, Murrey, making just his first career start against UST , was busy striking out seven Tommie batters in the first three frames. He walked just one batter on the game. Murrey is now 5-2 with a 2.54 ERA and has 69 strikeouts in 49 2/3 innings pitched. This was his second big effort this year against a team currently ranked high in Division III. Against No. 5 Johns Hopkins (25-3) in March in Arizona, he pitched eight scoreless innings and struck out a school-record 18 batters in an extra-inning Mac win. His career record is 24-11 and he has 267 K's and a 2.40 ERA through 221 innings on the mound.

The Tommies appeared to be coasting towards an easy win in the nightcap, jumping out on top 5-0 as starter Kris Edwards (5-1) didn't surrender a hit until there were two outs in the fifth. The Scots, though, made UST work for the split, scoring twice on four hits in the sixth inning and getting a leadoff single in the seventh.  Glasser and Williams had RBI extra-base hits for the Scots.

The Scots gain their first MIAC win of the year and are now 13-10-1 overall and 1-5 in the conference. Top-ranked St. Thomas is 19-3 overall and 6-2 in the MIAC.

Mac returns to the diamond Saturday (April 17) at home against Concordia-Moorhead at 11 a.m. The Cobbers top the MIAC standings at 5-1.