Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score

MINNEAPOLIS - While a sizable portion of the Minnesota population was either asleep or watching late night television, the Bethel Royals were playing baseball at the Metrodome against the Jamestown College Jimmies from North Dakota. The clocks around the Dome read 2:24 a.m. when the last out of the doubleheader was recorded, and with that, the first two games of Bethel's season were in the books. Unfortunately, the results were not in Bethel's favor as they came up a run short in both games by scores of 5-4 and 2-1.

In game one, the Jimmies got on the scoreboard with a run in the bottom of the first inning, followed by two more in the third. Undaunted, Bethel mounted a rally in the top of the fourth inning and tied the game with three runs on just one hit. Bob Tokar (Jr., Elk River, Minn.) led off the inning by getting hit by a pitch for the second time in the game. After advancing to second base, Tokar came around to score on an RBI single by Kirk Darling (So., Kalamazoo, Minn.), who, along with Tim Oesterlin (Jr., Rochester, Minn.), scored on an error made by the Jamestown right fielder. Tim Churchill (Jr., Mt. Prospect, Ill.) got credit for a pair of RBIs on the play.

Not to be outdone, the Jimmies came back to score two more runs off of starting pitcher Travis Adams (Sr., Chanhassen, Minn.) in the bottom of the fourth inning to regain the lead.

Bethel put together a small rally in the top of the seventh inning when Churchill led off by getting hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a ground out, and then scored on a two-out Sean Flaherty (Jr., Shoreview, Minn.) RBI single. The Royals were unable to push the tying run across, thus opening the season with a 5-4 loss. Newcomer David Anderson (Fr., Willmar, Minn.) closed out the last two innings for the Royals and did not allow a run in his debut.

In game two, the Royals went up 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning when Mark Therrien (Jr., Spring Lake Park, Minn.) scored on an Oesterlin RBI fielder's choice. Bethel held the lead until the top of the fifth inning when Jamestown scored their only two runs off of starting pitcher Ben Turnwall (Sr., Burnsville, Minn.) by way of a two-out long ball.

Although the Royals were unable to tie or retake the lead, they did put the pressure on the Jimmies in the bottom of the seventh. Jay Slick (Fr., River Falls, Wis.) led off the home half of the inning with a walk, and then was pinch run for by Micah Wenck (Jr., Wayzata, Minn.). Oesterlin laid down a perfect bunt between the pitcher and third baseman to move Wenck over, but also reached first in the process by beating out the throw. The next batter Dustin Littlefield (Sr., Rockford, Minn.) also laid down a great bunt, only to watch it barely trickle foul outside the third base line. Unfortunately, the repeat effort led to a double play and the Royals were left with a runner at first base and two outs. Despite a single by Churchill, Bethel remained scoreless in the seventh.

Chris Dent (So., Marietta, Ohio) threw in relief of Turnwall and tossed two scoreless innings in his debut for the Royals. Turnwall had three strikeouts in five innings of work.

The pair of losses puts Bethel at 0-2 early in their season, while Jamestown starts out 2-0. The Royals, somewhat accustomed to playing at odd times of the day in the Metrodome, will have the opportunity to enjoy the other end of the spectrum as the first pitch of their doubleheader series with Central College of Pella, Iowa, is scheduled to be thrown at 5 a.m. on Saturday morning for their next games.