Just TheFacts
NCAA Division III
Head coach: John Tschida
Assistants: Tim Gormley,
Bob Loshek, Dana Ballard
33-7 Overall, 20-2 MIAC
This site created and
maintained by
Donny Nadeau,
Sports Information
Director,
Saint Mary's University
The Tommies (33-7 overall) earned on of just four at-large berths into this year's regional tournament, after tying for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title with Saint Mary's. St. Thomas and Saint Mary's finished with identical 20-2 MIAC records, but SMU earned the conference’s automatic berth via the second tie-breaker criterion. Since the two teams split their head-to-head meetings (St. Thomas won 3-1, while SMU won 3-2), it came down to how the two teams fared vs. the third-place team in the conference, Gustavus. The Cardinals swept the Gusties (6-0 and 1-0), while the Tommies had to settle for a split (winning 8-0, then losing 1-0).
Pre-TournamentNotes
The Tommies and their first-year head coach, John Tschida, are not strangers to NCAA success. Tschida was Saint Mary’s coach the previous six seasons and guided the Cardinals to four consecutive NCAA trips, capped by the 2000 NCAA championship. His seven-year career record is 240-52 (.822). … This marks the Tommies’ fifth consecutive NCAA berth and fifth 30-win season in a row. … The Toms have beaten at least one favored team in each of their last four NCAA appearances, and were region runners-up in 1997 and 1999. … The Tommies have won 20 of their last 21 games to finish the regular season 33-7. … As a team, UST is batting .353, have outscored its opponents 274-61, and have 123 stolen bases to just 17 allowed. … The Tommies have won 26 consecutive home conference games and are 60-3 vs. conference foes since April 1999. … Six of the Toms’ seven defeats have been by one or two runs. … UST is 2-3 vs. NCAA Division III qualifiers thus far — the Tommies lost 5-0 to Tufts; and split doubleheaders with Saint Mary's (won 3-1, lost 3-2) and Wartburg (won 6-4, lost 5-0). … St. Thomas has three seniors leading the charge — Avery Heidenreich, pitcher Casey Curson, and 2B Sarah Grudnowski. In their era, St. Thomas has compiled a record of 135-44 (78-10 in the conference). … A four-year starter, Curson has 25 career shutouts and a 68-17 record in 103 appearances with 459 strikeouts in 563 innings. She has won her last 10 starts overall in her 16-3 season, and lowered her ERA to 1.18. She beat every conference team to finish 11-0 in 11 starts. As a designated hitter, Curson has nine multiple-hit games and is batting .330 in 2001. In 154 career games is batting .307 with 109 hits, 76 runs and 75 RBI. … Heidenreich has improved her batting average more than 140 points from her .278 clip in 2000. She has reached base in all 38 games she’s played this season, and the Toms are 27-1 when she scores at least one run. She became just the second Division III player ever to hit two home runs in an inning when she slugged two in the first inning April 28 in a 17-0 win over St. Ben’s. Her five homers established a school season record and helped the Toms break their team season HR record (now 14). She’s had four three-hit games; has 15 extra-base hits among her 48 hits; has scored 43 runs with 19 RBI; has also reached base with 22 walks and four HBPs; and has been successful in 38-of-40 steal tries. … Grudnowski, the starting point guard on St. Thomas’ NCAA Final Four basketball team of 1999-2000 and NCAA Sweet 16 team in 2000-2001, has made only two errors in 157 chances at second base.. She’s reached base in 37 of 40 games in 2001 with 15 multiple-hit games. In 36 games she’s had 52 hits, 36 runs, 11 walks and 27 steals.
fastpitch homepage
Statistics
Schdule/Results
Roster
Update
Update
Update
Update