ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Macalester College baseball team will take on top-seeded Bethel University in the first round of the MIAC Baseball Playoffs on Thursday, May 11 at Saint John's University's Becker Park. The Scots, who are seeded fourth, finished the regular season with a 23-15 record, including a 12-8 mark in league play. The game starts at 7:00 p.m.
Macalester returns to the MIAC Playoffs for the first time since the 2011 squad won the MIAC regular-season title. This year the Scots have built their success on a strong pitching staff combined with a productive lineup. Of the five pitchers who started conference games, four have earned run averages below 3.00, led by first year
Matthew Plisko (Alpharetta, Ga./Pace Academy). In four MIAC starts, Plisko is 3-1 with four complete games and a 0.93 ERA, while senior
Dylan Edwards-Gaherty (New York, N.Y./American Studies) is 4-0 with an ERA of 1.73.
The Macalester bats lead the MIAC with 21 home runs, 44 doubles and a .469 slugging percentage against conference opponents. Junior
Alex Baretta (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) is batting .412 to rank second in the conference, with junior
Nick McMullen (Payson, Ariz./Payson) also ranking second in the MIAC with 36 runs batted in. Senior
Quentin Stuart (Nashville, Ind./Nashville) has hit six of his team-best seven homers against MIAC foes, while sophomore
Graham Low (Piedmont, Calif./Piedmont) has six home runs overall.
The Scots split with Bethel (31-8, 16-4 MIAC) during the regular season, winning the first game, 3-1 and losing Game 2, 2-1. Stuart hit a two-run homer and Edwards-Gaherty held the Royals to one run on eight hits in a complete-game effort in Game 1. Sophomore
Sam Goldberg (N. Potomac, Md./Thomas S. Wootton) hit a solo home run in Game 2.
Second-seeded St. Thomas (25-14, 16-4 MIAC) will play third-seeded Saint John's (25-11, 14-6 MIAC) in the other first-round game on Thursday at Cold Spring Baseball Park. During the regular season, Macalester split with all of the other three teams in the tournament, which is a double-elimination tournament. The winners of Thursday's games will play on Friday, May 12 at 3:00 p.m. at Becker Park, with the losers playing Friday at Cold Spring Park, also at 3:00 p.m. A second elimination game will be played on Friday at 7:00 p.m. at Becker Park. The championship will be decided on Saturday, May 13 at 12:00 p.m. at Becker Park.
Tickets are good for the day and are $8.00 for adults and $3.00 for any student. Children five and under are free.
Here is the entire championship bracket:
2017 MIAC Baseball Playoffs, hosted by Saint John's University
Thursday, May 11
Game 1: No. 1 Bethel vs. No. 4 Macalester, 7:00 p.m. at Becker Park (SJU)
Game 2: No. 2 St. Thomas vs. No. 3 Saint John's, 7:00 p.m. at Cold Spring Baseball Park
Friday, May 12
Game 3: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2, 3:00 p.m. at Becker Park
Game 4: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2, 3:00 p.m. at Cold Spring
Game 5: Loser of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 4, 7:00 p.m. at Becker Park
Saturday, May 13
Game 6: Winner of Game 3 vs. Winner of Game 5, 12:00 p.m. at Becker Park
Game 7 if necessary, 3:00 p.m. at Becker Park
Live stats and video for all games can be found here:
https://portal.stretchinternet.com/csbsju/
