NORTHFIELD, Minn. – In a game that took one week to finish, the St. Olaf College baseball team completed a sweep of crosstown-rival Carleton College with a 12-8 victory on Thursday afternoon at Mel Taube Field.

St. Olaf (10-18, 5-5 MIAC) and Carleton (6-16, 4-6 MIAC) began the day tied at 8-8 in the bottom of the sixth before the Oles scored three runs in the top of the seventh and another in the ninth to finish off their ninth consecutive win over the Knights. The game was the second contest of a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) doubleheader that started on Thursday, April 9, was suspended after five innings due to darkness, and was resumed for half an inning plus one batter on Monday, April 13 before lightning again suspended play.

Junior Sam Hruska improved to 2-0 on the season by throwing 4.0 shutout innings on Thursday, allowing just two hits with no walks and two strikeouts. All four St. Olaf runs on the final day of the game came off D3baesball.com Preseason All-American Will Schnepf, who worked all 4.0 innings for the Knights on the day.

Senior Mason Buck reached base four times, going 3-for-5 with a walk, a double, a stolen base, three runs scored, and three RBI over the duration of the game. Junior Cole Pleimann, senior Frank Lavin, first year Lucas Pusterla, and first year Dex Pudduck all tallied two hits apiece, with Pudduck scoring three times.

Carleton jumped out to a 3-0 lead before St. Olaf tied the game with three runs in the top of the third. Pudduck and Buck got on base to start the inning with a pair of singles and were at first and third before a balk scored Pudduck. Buck later scored on another balk with two outs before Lavin tied the game with an RBI double.

The Knights reclaimed the lead with a four-spot in the next half inning, with all four runs scoring after the second out. The Oles chipped away at their deficit with a run in the fourth on an RBI single by Buck before tying the game with four runs in the fifth, with Buck delivering the big hit of the inning with a two-run double.

After Hruska got a strikeout and a line-drive double play to end the bottom of the sixth when play continued on Thursday, St. Olaf scored three runs in the top of the seventh to take the lead for good. With runners on the corners and nobody out, senior Henry Black singled up the middle to score Pudduck. Buck then scored on the third wild pitch of the inning before Black came in on a fielder's choice three batters later.

The Oles added an insurance run in the top of the ninth when a walk to Black and a hit batter put two on with one out for Pleimann, who snuck a single through the right side to score the final run of the game. Hruska retired 11 of the 13 batters he faced as the fourth Ole pitcher over the course of the game.