NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College baseball team dropped both ends of its Senior Day doubleheader against Bethel University with 2-0 and 12-7 losses to the Royals on Saturday afternoon at Mark Almli Field.
Bethel (26-7, 14-2 MIAC), which received votes in this week's D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Top 25 poll, used two bases-loaded walks in the fifth inning to score the only runs of game one and had two big innings at the plate in game two to complete the sweep of St. Olaf (12-22, 7-9 MIAC). Despite the two losses, the Oles remain just two games in the loss column behind Saint Mary's University, which currently occupies the fourth and final spot in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs.
Between the two games, St. Olaf celebrated its senior class of
Calvin Keesler,
Kevin Steel,
Brendan Goldman,
Cade Mutscher,
Mason Buck,
Henry Black,
Frank Lavin,
Jack Pettit,
Breckin Hadley,
Christopher Woodside,
William Silton, and student assistant coach
Connor Chervany, as well as their families.
The Oles will travel to Saint Mary's on Sunday, April 26 for a pivotal MIAC doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. at Max Molock Field.
Bethel 2, St. Olaf 0 | Box Score
Two bases-loaded walks in the fifth inning accounted for the lone runs of the game, as two Bethel pitchers combined for a five-hit shutout in the opener. St. Olaf outhit the visitors by a 5-4 margin but committed three errors in the loss.
Steel suffered just his second loss of the season after allowing two unearned runs on three hits with four walks and three strikeouts over the first 5.0 innings for the Oles. Sophomore
Josiah Utsch threw scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh to keep St. Olaf within two.
Drew Girtz limited the Oles to five hits with two walks and eight strikeouts and earned the win with 5.0 shutout innings for the Royals. Cavan Banks retired six of the seven batters he faced over the final 2.0 innings to record the save.
A walk to Pettit and a single by Buck put runners on the corners for St. Olaf in the bottom of the first, but a strikeout and a line-drive double play got Bethel out of the inning unscathed. The Oles put together another threat in the fourth but could not capitalize. Junior
Kanen Kreafle followed a one-out single by Black with a double to right to put two runners in scoring position, but Girtz got a strikeout and a ground out to end the frame.
Bethel put the lone runs of the game on the board in the next half inning, taking advantage of an error and three walks to score on pair of bases-loaded walks. St. Olaf put runners on first and second with one out in the bottom of the fifth but again came up empty.
Bethel 12, St. Olaf 7 | Box Score
Bethel jumped out to an early lead with four runs in the top of the first, broke open a one-run game with five runs in the sixth, and went on to complete the sweep in game two. All nine starting position players had at least one hit for the Royals, who overcame four errors defensively.
Junior
Cole Pleimann was 3-for-5 with a solo home run, a double, and two runs scored for St. Olaf, while also got a solo home run from Woodside in the loss.
Bethel had a runner on second with two outs in the top of the first before six consecutive Royals reached base in a four-run opening frame. The Oles loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the inning, but a ground-ball double play ended the threat.
St. Olaf took advantage of two Bethel errors to get on the board in the bottom of the second and made it a 4-2 game on Pleimann's solo home run with one out in the third. After the Royals scored once in the top of the fourth, Woodside led off the bottom of the inning with his second home run of the year to get the Oles quickly back within two at 5-3.
St. Olaf made it a one-run game in the fifth when Buck tripled with one out and scored on a two-out error. Bethel scored five runs after the second out of the inning in the top of the sixth to open up a 10-4 cushion and held off the Oles the rest of the way.
