BOX SCORE:

GAME 1
GAME 2

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. - For the second day in a row, the Bethel Royals hosted a game at Hargis Park on a beautiful spring day. The Royals were the away team in today's affair due to Augsburg College not being able to play at Parade Stadium in Minneapolis. Despite the visiting status, the Royals slugged their way to a 10-8 victory in game one, while starter Matt Johnson pitched a complete game.

The Royals came out swinging in game one, putting up 6 runs in the opening frame before ever making an out. Following a Travis Piepho single that advanced David Freed to second, Jay Slick doubled down the right field line to quickly make the score 1-0. After a pitch hit Erik Anderson, Mike Sedjo drove in Piepho with an RBI single to center. The runs started piling up after that, thanks to a Jesse Nickols 2 RBI single and a Buddy Flaherty single that would score 2. After the first inning, the Royals held a large 6-0 lead.

Augsburg strung together a couple hits later in the following innings to make the game 7-6 entering into the top of the 7th. Once again, Nickols and Flaherty came up with big hits for the Royals, as they both collected RBI singles to make the game 10-6. Augsburg would tack on two in the bottom half of the frame, thanks to an Adam Seaman homer to left, but it wasn't enough. The Royals came away with an important game one win 10-8.

Matt Johnson went the distance in the winning effort, pitching 7 strong innings while allowing 11 hits, but only 1 walk. Johnson allowed only 4 earned runs in the game and struck out 6 Auggies.

The Royals appeared to be well on their way to another victory in game two as David Freed allowed no hits to the Auggies thru 4.1 innings. Once again, the Royals jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, as the RBI came off the bat of Slick, when he hit a single up the middle in the first inning to score Piepho, who led off the game with a double.

The Royals would add two more in the bottom of the third when Sean Bethke singled into center field to score Anderson and Sedjo. The Royals held a 4-1 lead entering into the bottom of the 5th, but 4-run outburst by the Auggies put the Royals down 5-4 with two innings remaining. Bethel could never regain their footing and fell by a final of 5-4.

The heart of the order was very effective for the Royals in game two, with Slick, Anderson, and Sedjo all collecting 2 hits apiece, while Slick and Bethke both accounted for 2 RBI in the game.

With the split to Augsburg, the Royals are now 2-2 in MIAC play and will resume their games Saturday at the University of St. Thomas. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.