Reusse: MIAC baseball playoffs feature departing coaches in Jerry Haugen (St. John’s) and Brad Baker (Gustavus)

COLLEGEVILLE, MINN. – The MIAC’s four-team playoff was held over the past three days at a St. John’s baseball facility that you would expect to find in the Big Ten and not on a woodsy campus that’s home to Division III athletics.

There was hope among Johnnies that this could be a championship walk-off for Jerry Haugen, retiring after 48 seasons as their baseball coach. This came one year after he retired from his duties as a defensive coach in football, which he started in 1976.

Updated bios use the title “defensive coordinator,” although he started so long ago with John Gagliardi that there was no coordinator title. You were just the guy over there trying to get the defenders to do what Gag wanted them to do. When Denny Lorsung surrendered the baseball job by moving to St. Cloud State in the summer of 1977, the Benedictines running St. John’s said: “You’re not that busy in the spring, Jerry. You’re now our baseball coach.”

There is no resemblance between the resources put into Division III athletics and what you see with the Johnnies’ stunning Haugen Field at Becker Park.

Haugen can point east to an open area in front of thick woods, which was a former home to Johnnies baseball.

“It was the last place in Stearns County where the snow melted,” Haugen said again Saturday.

Scott Becker and Haugen played both football and baseball together at St. John’s. In 1976, Becker was a defensive back and Haugen was a newly minted graduate coaching defense for a Johnnies team that won the D-III national championship.

As Haugen took what Gagliardi described as a “vow of poverty” in becoming a St. John’s coach, Becker went into the financial world and did extremely well. In 2012, he picked up most of the large tab for a new ballpark — artificial turf field, followed by a grandstand the next year.

A clubhouse and office area were completed last season.

“Those of us who competed with Jerry will tell you that he might be the best athlete St. John’s has had,” Becker said Saturday morning. “Of course, Blake Elliott, who just got in the College Football Hall of Fame, and the great runner, Tim Schmitz … they could argue that."

There was some melancholy in Becker‘s voice. He has assisted with the baseball program, and Haugen’s final season ended with an 0-2 record in the double-elimination playoff: 6-3 against three-time defending champion Bethel on Thursday, then 13-12 to St. Olaf in a 3:07 marathon Friday.

Haugen’s win total concluded at 916. And the conclusion came against Matt McDonald, completing his 31st season with the Oles.

“Matt’s not retiring,” Haugen said Saturday, “He’s now the senior guy in our league.”

Haugen is being joined in retirement by Gustavus’ Brad Baker, who might be the greatest coaching hire in the long history of the MIAC.

He’s another MIAC grad who did very well in the financial world with Craig-Hallum Capital Group.

Once at Gustavus in 2015, Baker decided the best way to elevate Gusties baseball from near the MIAC’s bottom was with a new ballpark.

So, Baker and his brother Jeff (an assistant coach) financed much of that. Brad announced in early March that this 11th season would be his last.

On Saturday, Baker repeated a previous one-liner: “This is the most expensive job I’ve ever had.”

Satisfying, though.

The Gusties defeated Bethel 3-2 on Friday in the winner‘s bracket game. Bethel beat St. Olaf later, and then the Royals came into Saturday having to beat the Gusties twice to keep their playoff title streak going.

Gustavus had gone from 1980 (when Baker was a player) to 2019 before winning the MIAC’s regular-season title. A victory Saturday would give the Gusties a first-ever playoff title and the guarantee of a first-ever berth in the D-III baseball tournament.

“We’re finding the right athletes, and we have excellent development going on with our assistants,” Baker said. “And we can hit.”

Brian Raabe, an ex-Twin and ex-Gopher in Year 14 at Bethel and content to continue in that task, said pregame: “That’s an excellent team, but we did beat ‘em in both games in the in-season doubleheader. We’ll battle.”

Battle they did, but Isaac Becker — a senior from Columbia Heights — outdistanced the dimensions of Becker Park with a three-run blast to left field. That turned the game to the Gusties, and the final was 11-9.

Gustavus is headed to the NCAA baseball tournament for the first time; a nice result from this expensive task for Baker, a Gustie to the core.