FORT MYERS, Fla. – Under clear skies and sunshine the Bethel University baseball team opened its 2019 season with a 10-3 win over Lakeland University Thursday afternoon in Fort Myers. The Royals closed out their opening day dropping a 5-1 decision to No. 9-ranked Johns Hopkins University.

The Royals are back in action tomorrow as they play a doubleheader against Edgewood College. Both games will be seven innings in length with game one starting at Noon eastern time. 

Junior infielder Joey Fredrickson went 3-for-9 at the plate driving in three runs while junior infielder Parker Mullenbach went 4-for-7 with a pair of walks. Fresh faces to the lineup stepped up for BU with rookie infielder Nick Kulseth was 3-for-5 scoring once and driving in three runs.

Game 1: Bethel 10, Lakeland 3
Five freshmen were on the lineup card including opening day starter Marcus Krupke. In his Royal debut, Krupke threw seven innings of shutout ball allowing five hits and struck out four.

In his first collegiate at bat Mitchell Jerde drove in the Royals first run as his single to the left-center gap drove in Fredrickson who led off the inning with a double. Kulseth capped off the three run inning as he drove in a pair himself on a ball just inside the line past third base.

Jerde drove in one more to make it 4-0 BU after six as his sacrifice fly to deep left scored Mitch Butvilas who reached on a leadoff double.

In the bottom of the sixth, Lakeland had its best opportunity to do damage with runners at first and second and one out. Krupke helped his own cause with a stellar pick off move to retire the lead runner before he induced a flyout to end the inning.

With a six run lead freshman James Woelfel came up big with a double to the right-center gap to score Mullenbach before Kulseth capped off his three RBI game driving in Woelfel.

Another new arm to the Bethel roster enter the game as Logan McDonald threw two innings of relief surrendering three runs on four hits with two strikeouts. The offense had his back scoring two runs in the ninth to give Bethel a season opening win for the sixth time under eighth year head coach Brian Raabe.  

Game 2: No. 9 Johns Hopkins 5, Bethel 1
Senior right-hander Michael Bohlke settled in after giving up two runs in the opening frame to the Blue Jays. The Maple Grove, Minn. native struck out six through six innings of work.

Bethel put its leadoff man in scoring position in the third and sixth but were not able to string a run across. As for Johns Hopkins, they broke through in the fifth after having gone nine up and nine down. A leadoff double in the fifth came around to score after a sacrifice bunt and ground out to take a 3-0 lead.

BU made the move to the pen calling in junior Jake Marsh. Johns Hopkins got a hold of Marsh early with the dreaded leadoff walk. That walk and a hit by pitch led the Blue Jays to hit back-to-back singles to bring in both runners.

The Royals didn't go down without a fight in the ninth as Trey Kocher and Mullenbach notched back-to-back singles to spark the rally. Krupke, who got the start at shortstop in game two, drove in Kocher for Bethel's only run with a single to center before a groundout ended it.