Notables
- Senior Day for CSS as it honored eight seniors
- The Saints finish the regular season with an overall record of 29-11, and a conference record of 20-1
- St. Scholastica is now 11-0 at Wade Stadium, staying undefeated at home this season
- The Saints will be the number one seed heading into the UMAC tournament next week where they will open with Bethany Lutheran
DULUTH, Minn. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica baseball team closed out its regular season Saturday afternoon in convincing fashion, taking both games against Bethany Lutheran to complete the series sweep. After defeating the Vikings Friday night, the Saints won both games again today by scores of 11-1 and 12-8.
Game 1: CSS 11, Bethany Lutheran 1 (F/7)
After only allowing one run to Bethany Lutheran Friday night, the Saints followed up with another one-run allowance on defense. The run occurred right away in the top of the first with the bases loaded and Tyler Hebrink took ball four for the first run of the game. The Saints answered with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the first, one coming off of Austin Colvard (Little Canada, Minn./Roseville HS) stealing home.
The second inning was a little quieter for both teams, with the Saints scoring the lone run of the inning. The run came off of a wild pitch by Vikings pitcher Brandyn Olsen, scoring Jake Kuschke (Mahtomedi, Minn./Mahtomedi HS ) from third.
Kuschke, after scoring the third run of the game, knocked in two of his teammates in the bottom of the third inning on a double to right field, making the score 5-1 in favor of the Saints. The Saints added two more runs in the third thanks to senior Ryan Burmeister (Eagan, Minn./Eagan HS (Augustana, S.D.) ) and Austin Colvard (Little Canada, Minn./Roseville HS)'s RBIs.
The fourth and fifth innings were scoreless, and it wasn't until the bottom of the sixth that another run was added to the scoreboard. Tyler Duex (Bloomer, Wis./Chippewa Falls HS (UW-Superior) ) hit a double to left center, scoring Trevor Bernsdorf (Meadowlands, Minn./Floodwood HS (Doane) ) and making the game 8-1.
The Saints scored three more runs in the bottom of the seventh, coming off of a Burmeister triple, a Colvard double, and a Brian Minks (St. Cloud, Minn./St. Cloud Cathedral HS ) single.
The win was awarded to senior Padraic Getchell (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater HS (North Dakota) ), who improves to 5-2 on the season. The loss was given to Bethany Lutheran's Brandyn Olson, who ends his regular season with a record of 2-4.
Game 2: CSS 12, Bethany Lutheran 8
The second game of the afternoon proved to be a lot more interesting than the first, with the game being close all the way up until the seventh inning.
The first run of the game was recorded by St. Scholastica in the bottom of the second when Chris Olson (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS ) knocked in Minks.
Bethany responded with two runs of their own in the third inning coming off of an Adam Geiger single to left field. The Saints would even up the score in the bottom half of the inning after a Duex single scored Padraic Getchell (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater HS (North Dakota) ).
The score would remain 2-2 until the bottom of the fifth, when Duex struck again with a fly out to center field that gave him his second RBI of the contest.
The game simmered down again and remained 3-2 until the bottom of the seventh inning, where the Saints took over. The scoring started with a Trevor Bernsdorf (Meadowlands, Minn./Floodwood HS (Doane) ) fly out to centerfield that scored one, followed up by Duex's third RBI of the game with a single down the left side of the field. Senior Shayne Ciernia (Eagan, Minn./Breck HS ) then singled in two runs in to make the score 7-2. Jake Kuschke (Mahtomedi, Minn./Mahtomedi HS ) added one more run before the end of the inning with a single of his own to make it an 8-2 Saints lead.
The scoring kept coming. Bethany answered the Saints big inning with a big inning of their own, scoring three runs in the top of the eighth to bring it back to a three run game. St. Scholastica kept the pedal to the metal, scoring four more runs in the bottom of the eighth, highlighted by Steven Neutzling (St. Cloud, Minn./St. Cloud Cathedral )'s double to center field that scored two.
Bethany would knock in three more runs in the top of the ninth, but they would fall four runs short of tying the game as the Saints and senior closer Zack Farmer (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) ended the game with a 12-8 win.
The win was given to Jordan Risse (Sioux Falls, S.D./Washington HS ), who is now 2-4 on the year. The loss was given to Collin Risting, after Nick Dewanz started and left the game while it was still tied.
The Saints move to 20-1 in UMAC play and are the number one seed for the conference tournament, which starts Thursday.
The Vikings are now 11-10 in UMAC play and will look for revenge in the conference tournament.
