NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College baseball team snapped a four-game losing streak with 3-2 and 18-6 (seven innings) victories over Augsburg University for its fourth Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) sweep of the season on Saturday afternoon at Mark Almli Field.

St. Olaf (18-9, 9-3 MIAC) won a low-scoring opener on a walk-off sacrifice fly off the bat of sophomore Cole Pleimann before exploding for season-high totals in runs (18) and hits (20) to sweep Augsburg (10-19, 4-8 MIAC) for the third season in a row. The Oles hit .459 (28-for-61) as a team on the day and got on base at a .527 clip in the two wins.

Next up for St. Olaf is a single non-conference game at Crown College on Monday, April 21 at 4:30 p.m. in St. Bonifacius.

St. Olaf 3, Augsburg 2 | Box Score

After the teams traded two-run frames in the fourth, the score stayed tied until Pleimann won it for St. Olaf with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh. Senior Jacob Fickenscher improved to 6-1 on the season with a complete-game win for the Oles, holding the Auggies to two runs on five hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

Senior Matthew Kulesa was the lone hitter on either team with multiple hits in the game, going 2-for-4 with two doubles and a run scored. Austin Lang earned a no-decision for Augsburg after yielding two runs (one earned) on six hits over 6.0 innings before the Oles got a run off Caleb Tays in the seventh.

St. Olaf left a pair of runners on base in both the first and third innings before Augsburg tallied two runs on three hits in the top of the fourth to open the scoring. The Oles answered in the bottom of the fourth, scoring on a sacrifice fly off the bat of senior Jack Alley and a two-out error.

Kulesa led off the bottom of the fifth with a double to deep center and moved to third on a wild pitch but was left there, as the Oles left the bases loaded in the inning. Kulesa again started the bottom of the seventh with a double to center before Augsburg intentionally walked junior Mason Buck. Junior Christopher Woodside dropped down a bunt single that stayed inside the third-base foul line before Pleimann ended the game with a fly ball to center to score Kulesa.

St. Olaf 18, Augsburg 6 (7 inn.) | Box Score

Augsburg took a 4-1 lead in the second before St. Olaf scored 15 unanswered runs thanks to crooked numbers in the second, fourth, and fifth innings. Junior Breckin Hadley recorded the third four-hit game of his career to lead the 20-hit attack by going 4-for-5 with two runs scored and four RBI.

Pleimann and junior Frank Lavin both matched Hadley with four RBI, with Lavin hitting his team-leading third home run of the season. Kulesa and senior Evan Hammonds both had three hits and scored three runs, as seven Oles tallied multi-hit games.

Senior Matthew Oberlander benefited from the offensive barrage and the run rule to collect his fourth win of the season despite allowing four runs over the first 4.0 innings. First year Josiah Utsch gave up two runs in 1.2 innings of relief before Woodside got the final four outs.

After Hadley singled in the first run of the game in the bottom of the first, Augsburg put four runs on the board in the top of the second, highlighted by a two-out, three-run home run by Stanley Regguinti. The Auggies' lead was short-lived, however, as the Oles responded with five runs in the next half inning to take a 6-4 lead.

Senior Jack Alley doubled in the first run of the inning before Lavin hit a two-run home run on the next pitch to quickly tie the game at 4-4. St. Olaf completed the five-run frame with a run on a failed pickoff attempt and another on a ground out by Buck.

The Oles broke the game wide open with seven runs in the bottom of the fourth, as the first six St. Olaf batters in the inning all reached safely. Hadley and Lavin recorded two-run hits in the inning, which also included RBI hits from Pleimann and Alley.

In the fifth, Pleimann cleared the bases with a three-run double after St. Olaf loaded the bases with nobody out to extend the Oles' lead to 16-4. Augsburg scored twice in the top of the sixth before Woodside got a called third strike to prevent further damage and leave the bases filled with Auggies.

Hadley capped his four-hit, four-RBI performance with a run-scoring single in the bottom of the sixth after Hammonds scored the first run of the inning on a balk.