MINNEAPOLIS – The Bethel University baseball team split an afternoon doubleheader with Crown College Thursday afternoon inside U.S. Bank Stadium.

Bethel (6-3) dropped the opener 4-3 before putting on an offensive clinic taking the finale over Crown (4-13), 9-2.

Keenan Hodgkin led the way going a combined 3-for-8 with three RBIs and a pair of extra bases.

Game 1: Crown 4, Bethel 3
Bethel sparked a late seventh-inning rally plating a pair of runs and putting the tying run at second. But the Crown starter, who went the distance, held strong getting the final three outs.

Marcus Krupke brought in the Royals first run of the game scoring James Woelfel all the way from first with a double to left.

Crown answered with a run in the fourth and three in the fifth capitalizing on a two-out walk.

Back-to-back singles from Nick Kulseth and Caleb Brandt led off the seventh. Both eventually crossed home plate on an infield single from Kennan Hodgkin and sacrifice fly from Nick Wibben.

Ty Kohen, out of the pen, picked up the loss giving up three runs in the fifth.  Starter Matthew Bohlke tossed two scoreless innings.

Game 2: Bethel 9, Crown 2
Bethel dialed in at the plate from the start collecting 10 hits and taking advantage of five Storm errors.
Tied 1-1 after the first, Bethel capped a four-run third with a RBI triple from Noah Wenberg who then came home as Crown threw the ball out of play trying to retire him at third.

Starter Marcus Krupke was relieved by his brother Jordan Krupke after tossing a pair of innings where he allowed one run. Jordan forced Crown into zeros until the fifth.

The Royals responded right back with four runs in the fifth sending 10 hitters to the plate.

Logan McDonald and Bryce DeLay out of the pen tossed the final two scoreless innings.

Up Next
The Royals will get their first taste of MIAC action when they take on Augsburg Sunday inside U.S. Bank Stadium. The doubleheader is scheduled for 5 p.m.