Arden Hills, Minn. - The Bethel University baseball team earned two non-conference victories against Snelling Avenue rival Northwestern University on Wednesday evening at Hargis Park (2-1, 10-1). The wins move the Royals to 24-8 (14-4) on the season.
On the bump, pitchers
Aidan Nelson and
Jordan Krupke each earned their third win of the season, moving Nelson to 3-1 and Krupke to 3-0 on the season.
At the plate,
Ty Koehn lead the team in hits with three and
Tommy Friesen and
Nolan Jurgenson lead the team in RBI's with two each.
Game 1 | Bethel 2, Northwestern 1
Bethel fell into a hole early in this game in the top of the fourth inning when Northwestern catcher Cramer Hamilton stroked an RBI single to center field to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
The Royals struck back in the bottom of the fifth, scoring two runs of their own off of a Justin Wintefeldt groundout turning into a fielding error and a
Keenan Hodgkin fly out to right field resulting in another error by Northwestern in the field and the Royals took a 2-1 lead.
On the mound,
Aidan Nelson earned the win, pitching three shutout innings with one walk and two strikeouts.
Blake Williams earned the save for the Royals, throwing a shutout in the seventh inning with two strikeouts and gave the Royals the 2-1 victory.
Game 2 | Bethel 10, Northwestern 1
Bethel got on the board first in this game, scoring two runs in the bottom of the first inning after
Ty Koehn hit a single to right field and the Eagles right fielder overran the ball to allow
Justin Winterfeldt to run home on the error.
Keenan Hodgkin then hit an RBI single to left to put the Royals up 2-0 early.
Bethel added to their lead in the bottom of the second inning when
Tommy Friesen singled to first base to earn an RBI and a throwing error by the Eagles first baseman allowed another run to score to put the Royals up 4-0.
Bethel continued to pour on offense in the bottom of the fourth inning when
Matthew Carlsen stroked an RBI double to right-center field,
Tommy Friesen hit a sacrifice fly down the right field line,
Justin Winterfeldt hit a sacrifice fly to center, and
Ty Koehn crushed a solo home run to right field to put the Royals up 8-0.
Northwestern scored one run in the top of the fifth to cut the lead to 8-1 but it didn't matter as Bethel answered in the bottom of the sixth inning with a
Nolan Jurgenson two-run home run to right field to put the Royals up 10-1.
Zach Haala came into pitch the top of the seventh to shut out the Eagles and secure the 10-1 victory for the Royals.
Starting Bethel pitcher
Jordan Krupke picked up his third win of the season, pitching four shutout innings with no walks and three strikeouts.
Up Next:
The Royals will hit the road and return to MIAC conference play with a doubleheader matchup against Concordia College May 6th in Moorhead with game times slated for 1 and 3:30 P.M.
