ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – A handful or crooked numbers paced the Bethel University baseball team to a 6-2 series opening victory over Saint Mary's Wednesday afternoon. The visiting Cardinals forced a split taking game two 8-6 despite a ninth-inning rally from the Royals that came up just short.
Game 1 | Bethel 6, Saint Mary's 2
BU's top of the order accounted for most of the offensive production accounting for a combined four RBIs.
Nine-hitter
Nolan Jurgenson put Bethel on the board with his RBI single to right-center before leadoff man
Matthew Carlsen tallied his first RBI of the game getting it through the right side.
Starter
Marcus Krupke worked out of a jam in the third with an inning-ending 1-6-3 double play.
The Royals first two hitters in the fourth reached before
Tommy Friesen got one on the ground through the right side scoring an unearned run for BU. An intentional walk to
Ty Koehn loaded them up with one away. The Cardinals got a flyout before
Jordan Krupke drew a bases loaded walk making it 4-0.
With runners at the corner in the fifth, Carlsen drove in his second run of the day.
Justin Winterfeldt helped the Royals put up a crooked number with a RBI sacrifice fly to right that scored Carlsen.
The Cardinals put up a run in the sixth and the seventh, only one of them being earned.
Game 2 | Saint Mary's 8 Bethel 6
A ninth inning rally came up just short for the Royals as they stranded them loaded in the bottom of the ninth. That came after plating three pulling BU within two.
Going into the final at bat trailing by five, Bethel put its first two runners aboard. A RBI groundout from
Tommy Friesen and then a strikeout by
Justin Winterfeldt put the Royals down to their final out.
A Cardinals error allowed Carlsen to score extending the inning.
Keenan Hodgkin, down in the count 0-2, kept the comeback efforts alive pulling BU within 8-6 on a single to the gap in left.
A six-pitch walk to
Marcus Krupke loaded them up before the Cardinals' fresh arm out of the pen got a strikeout to end it.
SMU tallied a run in its first five at bats putting the Royals down 5-2 after five.
Marcus Krupke and
Ty Koehn each had RBI singles through the right side during that time frame.
A three-run homer for the Cardinals put them up 8-2 before Carslen legged on an infield single that brough in a run in the bottom of the sixth.
Up Next
Now 19-4 on the year and 6-2 in MIAC play the Royals head to CHS Field Saturday night for a MIAC doubleheader against Hamline. First pitch of game one is slated for 6 p.m.
