ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Macalester College baseball team pounded out 13 hits and scored 11 runs to beat Saint Mary's University, 11-4 in a winner's bracket game at the MIAC Playoffs Friday afternoon at CHS Field. The win puts the No. 2-seeded Scots (28-14) into the final on Saturday, when they will play for the MIAC Playoff championship. The Cardinals, who upset No. 1-seeded Bethel on Thursday, drop to 25-16.
On Saturday, Macalester will face the winner of the elimination game featuring fourth-seeded Saint Mary's and No. 3 Saint John's, which is being played Friday evening. Saturday's action begins at 3:00 p.m. at CHS Field. Since the MIAC Playoffs is a double-elimination tournament, the winner of Friday night's game would have to beat Macalester twice on Saturday. The winner of the MIAC Playoffs earns the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
As they did in the two regular-season games against Saint Mary's, the Scots put a crooked number on the scoreboard in the first inning. Junior infielder
Holden Peacock (Houston, Texas/Kinkaid School), senior outfielder
Raymond McCaskey (Colorado Springs, Colo./Manitou Springs) and first year outfielder
John McMurray (Washington, D.C./Sidwell Friends) led off the inning with singles to load the bases. Sophomore outfielder
Tristan Lander (West Chester, Pa./B. Reed Henderson) roped a double to centerfield that cleared the bases for a 3-0 lead. With two down and Lander still on second, sophomore catcher
Bobby Munoz (Santa Monica, Calif./Santa Monica) singled home Lander to make the score 4-0.
In the top of the third, the Cardinals got back in the game with three runs to make it a one-run game. Macalester answered in the bottom of the third, when an error by the right fielder allowed Lander to reach second. He moved to third on a groundout, then scored on sacrifice fly from sophomore
Connor Davison (Redwood City, Calif./Woodside). Saint Mary's tallied another run in the top of the fifth, only to have the Scots score twice in the bottom of the fifth to lead, 7-4. With the bases loaded, senior infielder
Tristan Jones (Fairfield, Conn./Greens Farms Academy) hit the ball down the third-base line that was misplayed by the third baseman, allowing Munoz and senior first baseman
Josh Planko (Northville, Mich./Northville) to score.
Macalester added a run in the sixth on a single by Planko that plated Peacock, then struck for three runs in the bottom of the seventh. McCaskey's infield single brought home Jones, then McMurray belted a two-run double to left-center to score Peacock and McCaskey and put the game out of reach. Sophomore lefty
Elliott Rowley (South Pasadena, Calif./Polytechnic School), sophomore righty
Haruto Mizuno (Irvine, Texas/Ranchview) and senior closer
Jamie Loizeaux (Albany, Calif./Albany) each pitched a scoreless inning of relief, with Rowley not allowing a hit and Mizuno and Loizeaux each striking out two batters.
McCaskey went 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI, while Peacock had two hits and scored three runs. McMurray, Planko and Jones each had two hits, as the Scots registered 13 hits on the day. Junior lefty
Isaiah Ramirez (Houston, Texas/Northbrook) entered the game in the third inning and held the Cardinals to one run on four hits with two strikeouts over 3 1/3 innings to earn the win. Junior right-hander
Josh Schmidt (Chicago, Ill./Whitney M. Young Magnet) started and went 2 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on five hits.
Macalester is looking to win its second MIAC Playoff title, joining the 2017 squad that went 3-0 in the playoffs to advance to the program's first NCAA Tournament. The Scots will play either Saint Mary's or Saint John's at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday at CHS Field. If necessary, a second game will be played 25 minutes following the first.
Tickets are $12.49 for adults and $9.20 for students and can be purchased
online. All games are available on the
MIAC Sports Network on a pay-per-view basis.
Tournament Website |
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Live Video |
Live Stats |
Playoff Apparel
2026 MIAC Baseball Playoffs, hosted by Hamline University at CHS Field
Thursday, May 7
Game 1: No. 4 Saint Mary's 8, No. 1 Bethel 6 - 11 innings
Game 2:
No. 2 Macalester 5, No. 3 Saint John's 4
Friday, May 8
Game 3: No. 3 Saint John's 4, No. 1 Bethel 3
Game 4:
No. 2 Macalester 11, No. 4 Saint Mary's 4
Game 5: No. 4 Saint Mary's vs. No. 3 Saint John's, 6:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 9
Game 6:
No. 2 Macalester vs. Winner of Game 5, 3:00 p.m. |
PPV Stream
Game 7 if necessary, 25 minutes after Game 6 |
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