St. Thomas got early offense matched with shutdown pitching to blank Minnesota in a mid-week matchup. The Tommies used three straight two-run innings starting in the second inning to jump out to an early lead they wouldn’t surrender.

Freshman Tucker Novotny got the nod for his first start of the season and put up an impressive first inning with a pair of strikeouts. St. Thomas got to the freshman with a pair of two-out singles to grab the first two runs of the game.

Novotny allowed a two-run bomb in the third inning before finishing the third frame and ending his night. On the offensive side, Minnesota recorded two of its three hits, but failed to get anything going.

Minnesota went to freshman reliever Seth Clausen who ran into trouble before getting his second out of the inning. Once again the Tommies used a two-out rally to tack on another pair of runs and extend their lead to 6-0.

Over the final five innings, the Gophers sent just 16 batters to the plate and never found a runner in scoring position.

This was the second straight game against the Tommies that the Minnesota offense struggled in. Last time out, the Gophers were able to be on the right end of a pitching battle with a 2-1 win over the in-state rival.

The Gophers take a four-game losing streak into the weekend as they try and get back on the right track against Penn State. Minnesota is still looking for its second conference win against the Nittany Lions who have a 5-7 conference record.