WINONA, Minn. – A three-run seventh gave the Bethel University baseball team a 4-2 victory in the opener of a MIAC twin bill at Saint Mary's Thursday afternoon.

The host Cardinals put up crooked numbers early giving them the night cap 9-4.

Game 1: Bethel 4, Saint Mary's 2
The Cardinals struck first in the third before expanding its lead to 2-0 taking advantage of a Bethel error.

After giving up those two runs, Marcus Krupke was lights out from there picking up his seventh win of the season. In the complete game effort, he walked none and struck out seven.

In the fifth, Bethel moved its leadoff walk into scoring position with a single from Matthew Carlsen and a sacrifice bunt from Thomas Friesen. Joey Fredrickson scored Nick Kulseth the next at bat with a RBI groundout.

The Royals did all their magic with two outs in the seventh. A single, walk and another single loaded the bases up for James Woelfel. A grounder to short looked as if it would allow the Cardinals to work out of a jam, but an errant throw allowed a pair of runs to cross the plate giving BU the lead.

Kennan Hodgkin singled to right the next at bat giving the Royals an insurance run.

Krupke slammed the door shut in the home half of the inning producing a fly out, strikeout and a groundout.

Game 2: Saint Mary's 9, Bethel 4
Bethel wasn't as fortunate in the second game as the Cardinals jumped on the Bethel pitching staff early scoring three runs in each of their first two at bats.

Trailing 7-0, Fredrickson drove in Bethel's first run legging out a double on a ball hit through the left side. Wibben followed that up with a sacrifice fly scoring Krupke making it 7-2.

A RBI double from Ty Kohen before scoring on a wild pitch put another crooked number up on the board in the sixth, but SMU had done its damage.

Up next
The Royals, now 19-15 overall and 13-11 in MIAC play, will have their final MIAC contest of the year hosting Augsburg in one nine-inning contest at Hargis Park. First pitch is at 1 p.m.