NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College baseball team defeated the College of St. Scholastica, 7-4, in game one before the Saints won a slugfest, 15-14, in game two of a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) doubleheader split on Sunday afternoon at Mark Almli Field.

Seniors Breckin Hadley and Frank Lavin homered in the opener for St. Olaf (9-16, 4-5 MIAC), but St. Scholastica (13-10, 3-4 MIAC) scored multiple runs in each of the first round innings on its way to a 13-6 lead in the middle of the sixth in game two. The Oles fought back with six runs in the fifth to get within a run at 13-12 and had the bases loaded in a 15-14 game before a controversial call at first base ended game two.

St. Olaf will finish its suspended game against crosstown-rival Carleton College on Monday, April 13 at 3:30 p.m. at Mel Taube Field. After the Oles won game one on Thursday, the two teams were tied at 8-8 after five innings before the game was suspended due to darkness.

St. Olaf 7, St. Scholastica 4 | Box Score

Hadley and Lavin's home runs helped St. Olaf to a win in the opener, as the Oles built a 5-0 lead and held off the Saints after the visitors got within a run in the fifth. Three St. Olaf pitchers held St. Scholastica to six hits in the win.

Senior Kevin Steel tallied his second win of the season after throwing 4.0 innings of two-hit, scoreless ball with two walks and two strikeouts. After the Saints scored four runs in the fifth, sophomore Josiah Utsch retired six of the seven batters he faced over the final two innings for the first save of his collegiate career.

In addition to the home runs from Hadley and Lavin, junior Cole Pleimann was 3-for-4 with two RBI, while senior Henry Black and first year Dex Pudduck had two hits apiece. Pudduck was 2-for-3 with a pair of doubles, a run scored, and one RBI.

Pleimann plated the first two runs of the day with a two-run single to right in the third after coming to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs. Pudduck doubled earlier in the inning before senior Mason Buck and junior Kanen Kreafle drew walks to get on.

After first year Lucas Pusterla got on with a walk to start the bottom of the fourth, Hadley belted his second home run of the season to center to give St. Olaf a 4-0 lead. Later in the inning, Black brought in another run with a double to right to cap the three-run frame.

St. Scholastica got a pair of two-run home runs in the top of the fifth to make it a one-run game, but St. Olaf got two of the runs back in the bottom of the inning. Lavin started the home half of the fifth with his fifth home run of the season before Pudduck doubled in senior Jack Pettit with two outs later in the frame. Utsch took care of the rest by retiring the final five St. Scholastica batters of the game after yielding a one-out single in the sixth.

St. Scholastica 15, St. Olaf 14 | Box Score

After battling back from a 12-5 deficit, St. Olaf was down by just one with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Pettit hit a grounder to the bag at second base that was bobbled by the St. Scholastica shortstop, who threw to first for the final out after the umpire deemed that the throw beat Pettit and the first baseman kept his foot on the base.

In a game that included 29 runs and 35 hits, Pettit was one of six Oles with multi-hit games by going 4-for-6 with a home run, two runs scored, and two RBI. Buck, Pleimann, and Lavin all also homered for St. Olaf, with Lavin driving in four runs and Buck, Pleimann, and Kreafle scoring three times apiece.

After homering once in game one, Damian Tamayo Vera was the story for St. Scholastica, going 5-for-6 with three home runs, four runs scored, and seven RBI.

The Saints started the game with back-to-back home runs from Luke Krull and Tamayo Vera and led 6-0 after an inning and a half. A three-run home run by Tamayo Vera pushed St. Scholastica's lead to 9-2 before Buck and Pleimann went deep for the Oles in a three-run bottom of the third that made it a 9-5 game.

The St. Scholastica lead was 13-6 in the middle of the fifth before St. Olaf scored six runs on seven hits in the bottom of the inning to get within a run. A three-run shot from Lavin, his team-leading sixth home run of the season, accounted for the first three runs of the inning before consecutive two-out hits from Buck, Black, and Kreafle got the Oles' deficit down to one.

Tamayo Vera's third home run of the game - his fourth of the day - in the top of the sixth was the lone run in the sixth through eighth innings before the Saints added what proved to be the game-winning run on a double-play grounder in the top of the ninth.

With runners on first and second and two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Lavin kept the Oles alive with a run-scoring single to right, and an error in the outfield allowed runners to end up at second and third on the play. Back-to-back walks made it a one-run game with the bases still loaded before Pettit's ground out ended the game.