ST. PAUL, Minn. – A location change, time change and a chilly April night could not cool down the Bethel University baseball team as they defeated the University of Northwestern 4-3 in 11 innings Monday evening at Reynolds Field.
Behind five scoreless innings from freshman left-hander
Ty Koehn and the game-winning RBI from freshman
Marcus Krupke the Royals improve to 15-11 on the season. The Royals take their three-game winning streak into Macalester where BU continues its nine game road trip tomorrow. First pitch of the MIAC doubleheader is set for 2:30 p.m. in St. Paul.
In the 11th,
Mitchell Jerde led off the frame with a single up the middle. Pinch runner
Nick Kulseth moved into scoring position on the sacrifice bunt from Koehn who was the game's original designated hitter. A wild pitch moved Kulseth to third where Krupke drove him in a pitch later with a single that sneaked its way up the middle to break the 3-3 tie.
Already in a groove, Koehn (1-0) produced the first two outs in the bottom half of the inning.Â
Brady Leahy came in for his third save of the season getting the game's final out with a grounder back to him on the first pitch he threw.Â
In his third appearance out of the bullpen Koehn struck out a career-high seven, walked none and gave up three hits.
Bethel took an early 2-0 lead with back-to-back RBI singles from
James Woelfel and
Nick Wibben in the second.
Northwestern plated one in the second on starter
Peyton Gallagher and another in the fifth to tie it up at 2-2 before Gallagher departed. The Eagles took the lead on a fielder's choice play as the Royals were not able to turn a ground ball into a double play with runners at the corners and one out.
To the rescue came
Mitch Butvilas with his first home run of the year. Butvilas sent a 2-2 pitch over the left field wall to lead off the eight and tie the game at 3-3.
From there the Royals bullpen shut down the Eagles allowing just two base runners through the final four innings which included a pair of multi-strikeout innings from Koehn.
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