LA CROSSE, Wis - The Bethel University baseball team lost their winner's bracket matchup against the host team, No. 13 Wisconsin-La Crosse 5-10, but rebounded and beat No. 24 Buena Vista 8-6 on Saturday evening to stay alive in their NCAA regional tournament.
At the plate,
Ty Koehn had himself a day, picking up five hits and four RBI's over the span of the two games.
Game 1 | Bethel 5, Wisconsin-La Crosse 10
This game started out rocky for Bethel, as the Eagle bats quickly jumped on Bethel pitcher
Max Sutter when Anthony Vivian cranked a three-run homer in the top of the first to put the Eagles up 3-0.
The Eagles added another run in the top of the second inning before Sutter calmed down for a stretch of game and the Eagles scored again in the top of the sixth inning to go up 5-0 on Bethel.
Ty Koehn breathed some life into the Royals dugout when he slashed a solo homer to right to cut the lead to 5-1.
Bethel pitching started to unravel when the Eagles scored three runs in the top of the eighth and two more in the top of the ninth off of
Max Sutter and relief pitcher
Nick Carlson to put the Royals in a 10-1 hole.
The Royals fought to the end, with a late-stage comeback effort in the bottom of the ninth, scoring four runs after a
Justin Winterfeldt RBI double to right, a
Keenan Hodgkin two-run double to right, and a
Ty Koehn RBU single to center to cut the lead to 10-5 before the Eagles stopped the bleeding and defeated the Royals by a final of 10-5, moving them to the championship round.
Max Sutter took his second loss of the season, going 7.1 innings with eight runs, four walks, and two strikeouts.
Game 2 | Bethel 8, Buena Vista 6
In the fifth matchup between these two teams this season, Buena Vista scored first in the top of the first innings to go up 1-0 on the Royals before Bethel answered back when
Ty Koehn smacked a solo homer in the bottom of the second to tie the game at 1-1.
Bethel took the lead in the bottom of the third when
Nick Kulseth hit a sacrifice fly to put the Royals up 2-1.
The Beavers tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the fourth inning, but the Royals silence their momentum, scoring three times in the bottom half of the fourth after a
Marcus Krupke RBI single to the shortstop, a
Tommy Friesen RBI single to second base, and a
Justin Winterfeldt sacrifice fly to left to put the Royals up 5-2.
The offense was minimalized for both sides through two scoreless innings before Bethel added two runs to their lead in the bottom of the seventh after
Ty Koehn hit an RBI groundout to drive in
Justin Winterfeldt and a fielding error by the Beaver third baseman allowed
Keenan Hodgkin to scamper home and give the Royals a 7-2 lead.
Bethel added another insurance run in the eighth after a
Tommy Friesen RBI single to center to put the Royals up 8-2.
Buena Vista gave it their all in the ninth, trying to keep their season alive by scoring four runs, but fell short, as the Royals claimed the 8-6 victory.
Starting pitcher
John Solfest had a shutdown day, going eight innings with two runs, four walks, and five strikeouts.
Up Next:
The Royals have a rematch against Wisconsin-La Crosse set for 11 A.M. tomorrow, May 21st, and need two back-to-back wins over the Eagles to advance out of the Wisconsin-La Crosse regional tournament.
