DAVENPORT, Fla. – The St. Olaf College baseball team pounded 25 hits on its way to sweeping Lawrence University by scores of 10-3 and 12-4 on Sunday afternoon at Northeast Regional Park.

After being held to five runs over the first three games of its trip, St. Olaf (8-5) scored 22 runs on 25 hits to sweep Lawrence (4-7) in the first meetings between the two programs since 2017. The Oles tallied eight runs in the fourth inning of both games and got strong starts from junior Kevin Steel and senior Matthew Oberlander.

St. Olaf will conclude its trip with a single game against Colby College on Monday, March 24 at 8 a.m. CDT.

St. Olaf 10, Lawrence 3 | Box Score

In the opener, St. Olaf scored single runs in the first and second innings before breaking the game open with eight runs in the fourth to open up a 10-0 lead. Lawrence scored the final three runs of the game to avoid the shutout.

Steel earned his first win of the season after holding the Vikings to two runs on six hits with no walks and six strikeouts over his 6.0 innings. The junior has allowed two or fewer earned runs in three of his four starts.

All nine starting position players reached base for St. Olaf in the win, with eight of the nine tallying at least one hit. Senior Jack Alley had the lone multi-hit game, going 2-for-2 with a walk, two runs scored, and one RBI. Junior Mason Buck, senior Matthew Kulesa, and sophomore Kanen Kreafle picked up two RBIs apiece.

Kulesa drove in the first run of the game in the bottom of the first with a sacrifice fly after senior Evan Hammonds walked, stole second, and got to third on a throwing error on the steal. Junior Henry Black had the first of his four RBI on the day with an infield hit in the bottom of the second.

St. Olaf scored eight runs on seven hits in the bottom of the fourth to go up by 10. After two singles and a walk filled the bases with nobody out, Kreafle lined a single up the middle to plate two runs. Buck added a two-run double in the inning before Kulesa, junior Breckin Hadley, and Alley knocked in runs with hits later in the frame.

Taylor Freeman capped a three-hit game with a two-run home run in the sixth before the Vikings added a third run in the seventh.

St. Olaf 12, Lawrence 4 | Box Score

Lawrence opened the scoring with two runs in the second before St. Olaf took the lead with three runs in the fourth. The Oles again broke the game open with eight runs in the sixth and went on to finish off the sweep.

Five Oles tallied multiple hits in the victory, led by a three-hit performance by junior Frank Lavin, who also scored three times. Hammonds, Buck, junior Christopher Woodside, and Black had two hits apiece, with Black knocking in a career-high three runs and scoring twice.

Oberlander matched his career high with seven strikeouts while limiting Lawrence to two runs on four hits with one walk over 5.0 innings to collect the win. Sophomore Nick Levasseur and senior Chris Blum worked the final two frames and combined for three strikeouts.

Lawrence took a 2-0 lead with a two-out, two-run home run in the bottom of the second and kept St. Olaf scoreless until the fourth despite the Oles loading the bases in the first and third innings. In the fourth, Lavin tripled to right center and scored on a single by Woodside to get St. Olaf on the board. The Oles added two more runs on a wild pitch and a fielder's choice to grab a 3-2 lead.

Kulesa started the scoring in St. Olaf's eight-run sixth with a two-run single to right center. Sophomore Cole Pleimann and Alley delivered back-to-back RBI doubles before Black cleared the bases with a three-run triple to the gap in right center. The Oles' final run of the game came on a two-out RBI triple by sophomore Leo Koenig, which was Koenig's first collegiate hit and RBI.