Notables
-Today's sweep paired with Northwestern's split with Minnesota Morris gives the Saints a game lead with two games remaining
-These were the last two road games of the regular season for St. Scholastica
-Northland combined for nine errors between the two games
-Wollenzien had five hits and six RBIs in the doubleheader sweep
ASHLAND, Wis. (csssaints.com) – The St. Scholastica baseball team won both games of a mid-week doubleheader versus Northland College on Wednesday. CSS took game one by a final score of 11-5 and game two by a score of 18-4.
Game 1: CSS 11, NC 5
CSS only mustered eight hits, but used five Northland errors to take an 11-5 game one victory.
The Saints scored three runs in the first inning, one of the runs unearned.
The first run was scored when
Brian Minks (St. Cloud, Minn./St. Cloud Cathedral HS ) singled in
Austin Colvard (Little Canada, Minn./Roseville HS). Two batters later
Trevor Bernsdorf (Meadowlands, Minn./Floodwood HS ) brought in
Al Marolt (Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS) with a sacrifice fly to make the game 2-0 Saints early. The third run came when
Conor Wollenzien (North Mankato, Minn. /Mankato West HS) hit a ground ball to shortstop that was mishandled allowing Minks to score from third. The ground ball would have been the third out of the inning.
The Saints would take a 4-0 lead in the fourth inning on a
Steven Neutzling (St. Cloud, Minn./St. Cloud Cathedral ) sacrifice fly, but gave up three runs in the bottom frame as the LumberJacks narrowed the margin to 4-3.
With the game set at 4-3, the Saints would go on to score runs in three of the final four innings, highlighted by a four-run eighth inning that propelled them ahead where they would stay and take game one 11-5. Wollenzien drove in three of the seven runs.
Minks, Neutzling, and Wollenzien would each finish the game with two hits, while starting pitcher
Jacob Dzubay (St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville HS (Butler) ) got the win throwing five innings and striking out four.
Ben Christofferson (Maple Grove, Minn. /Osseo HS) threw two hitless innings in relief and struck out four.
Game 2: CSS 18, NC 4 (F/7)
An eight-run second inning propelled the Saints to an easy seven inning victory in game two versus Northland.
The huge second inning for CSS amazingly all came with two outs after the first two batters of the inning quickly grounded out. In total 12 Saints hitters came to the plate, nine of them got on base either by a hit, walk, or error, and seven of the eight runs were earned. All of the Saints' hits in the inning were singles.
After two runs in the fourth to make the score 11-0, CSS would again put a crooked number on the board, this time five runs in the fifth inning. The inning would be highlighted by a Minks two-run homer that scored Marolt to start the inning off.
By the time the seventh inning ended, CSS saw themselves with an astonishing 18 runs on the board with 17 hits to boot as it took the game 18-4.
Marolt would finish this game 3-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored, while Wollenzien would also finish with 3 hits to go along with 3 RBIs and 3 runs of his own.
Gino Strebing (Tucson, Ariz./Santa Rita HS (Rainy River CC) ) would get the win pitching five innings, striking out a career-high nine batters.
Up Next
St. Scholastica (24-9, 13-1 UMAC) will next host Crown College for a doubleheader this Saturday in the UMAC regular season finale with game one set to begin at 1:30 p.m. at Wade Stadium.
