WINONA, Minn. – The St. Olaf College baseball team won game one, 8-3, before Saint Mary's University claimed a 3-2 walk-off victory in game two as the teams split their Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) doubleheader on Sunday at Max Molock Field.
In a meeting of two teams battling for spots in the MIAC Playoffs, senior
Breckin Hadley homered twice and junior
Sam Hruska threw a complete game to lead St. Olaf (13-23, 8-1 MIAC) past Saint Mary's (22-15, 10-8 MIAC) in game one. The Oles threatened to pull even with the Cardinals in the conference standings and hold the tiebreaker with a 2-1 lead before the hosts scored twice in the bottom of the ninth to pick up a split with the walk-off win in game two.
The split and results elsewhere in the MIAC kept Saint Mary's in the fourth and final MIAC Playoff spot and left St. Olaf in seventh. The Oles are also two games in the loss column behind the College of St. Scholastica and one game behind Gustavus Adolphus College heading into the final week of the regular season.
St. Olaf is scheduled to head to Crown College for a single non-conference game at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 28.
St. Olaf 8, Saint Mary's 3 | Box Score
Hadley hit a pair of solo home runs and Hruska tossed his third complete game of the season, as the duo guided St. Olaf to the game-one win. Hruska improved to 4-0 on the season by limiting the Cardinals to three runs (two earned) on eight hits with one walk and five strikeouts over the seven-inning complete game.
Hadley was one of five Oles with multi-hit games by going 3-for-4 with the two solo home runs. Senior
Jack Pettit was 2-for-4 with a walk, one RBI, and three runs scored, while junior
Kanen Kreafle was 2-for-3 with two RBI and was hit by a pitch.
St. Olaf staked Hruska to an early lead with a pair of runs in the top of the first. After an error kept the inning alive and put runners on the corners, Kreafle singled to right to score Pettit. Senior
Frank Lavin followed with an RBI double to center before the Cardinals stranded two Oles in scoring position to end the inning.
The Oles started the top of the third with a home run by Hadley, a triple by first year
Dex Pudduck, and a single by Pettit to open up a 4-0 lead. Later in the inning, senior
Henry Black provided a sacrifice fly to cap the three-run inning.
After Saint Mary's got on the board in the bottom of the second, Hadley hit a two-out solo home run in the third to give St. Olaf its five-run lead back. The two teams traded runs in the next two half innings, with the Oles scoring on an RBI double by junior
Cole Pleimann in the top of the fourth to go up 7-2.
Saint Mary's scored a run for the third inning in a row in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 7-3 game before Kreafle delivered a two-out single to score Pettit in the sixth for the final run of the game. Hruska got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the bottom of the seventh to finish off the complete game.
Saint Mary's 3, St. Olaf 2 | Box Score
First year
Tate Williams and sophomore
Josiah Utsch combined to hold Saint Mary's to one run over the first 8.0 innings before the Cardinals scored twice in the bottom of the ninth to grab a walk-off win. Hadley knocked in both of the Oles' runs by going 2-for-4 with his third home run of the day.
Williams matched his longest outing of the season by limiting Saint Mary's to one run on four hits with one walk over the first 5.0 innings. Utsch tossed 3.0 shutout innings, allowing two hits with three walks and three strikeouts.
St. Olaf broke through with the first run of the game with back-to-back-to-back two-out hits in the fourth. After singles by Black and Kreafle, Hadley singled to center to score Black and open the scoring. The Oles filled the bases with two outs on an error and two walks in the fifth but could not add to their lead.
After Saint Mary's tied the game in the bottom of the fifth, Hadley launched his third solo home run of the day – his sixth homer of the season – to right with one out in the top of the sixth to put the Oles back on top.
Utsch made the 2-1 lead hold until the Cardinals got a walk, a bunt single, and another single to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth. After a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with two outs, Dom Najacht reached on an infield single to bring in the winning run.
