WAVERLY, Iowa – The St. Olaf College baseball team fell victim to a nine-run fifth inning by host Wartburg College in a season-opening 10-0 loss in seven innings on Saturday afternoon at Harms Stadium at Hertel Field.

Fifth-year seniors Hunter Barber and Dylan Gotto were locked in a pitchers' duel through four innings before Wartburg (7-6) broke the game open with nine runs in the home half of the fifth on its way to the shutout win. Gotto struck out 11 and held St. Olaf (0-1) to one hit and one hit batter in six shutout innings to pitch the Knights to the win.

Barber pitched out of trouble in each of the first two frames, getting out of a first-and-third, one-out jam in the first and escaping the second unscathed after Wartburg started the inning with back-to-back singles. The Oles threw out a runner at the plate on a double steal in the first and junior Harald Borg threw out a runner stealing third in the second to keep the game scoreless.

St. Olaf had at least one runner on base in each of its first three innings at the plate but could not find a hit with a runner on base. Starting with an inning-ending double play in the second, Barber retired seven-straight Wartburg hitters before the Knights broke through in the fifth.

In the fifth, the first six Wartburg hitters of the inning all got hits, including a two-round double by Max Goodhue that made it 3-0. The Knights had eight hits, including a bases-clearing three-run double by Keaton Gray that pushed their lead to 8-0, in the inning and took advance of a pair of errors in the nine-run frame.

Wartburg added three more hits in the seventh, ending the game early on an RBI single by Eliot Jurgensen. The only hit the Oles mustered against Gotto was a leadoff single by junior Avery von Herrmann to start the third. Senior Andrew Nomoto added a leadoff single in the top of the seventh for St. Olaf's only other hit in the loss.

Barber was saddled with the loss after allowing seven runs on 11 hits in 4.1 innings of work. Senior Forrest Kobelt and junior Lucas Warner combined to throw the final two innings, with Warner striking out two batters in his 1.2 innings on the mound.

The same two teams play a doubleheader on Sunday, March 20 with first pitch at 1 p.m.