Written by Sports Writing Student Dylan Vilt '25
SAINT PETER, Minn. — The Gustavus baseball team split two hard-fought games in a doubleheader against Bethel Tuesday afternoon, winning the first game 15-11 in 7 innings and losing the second 7-0. Gustavus' record moves to 11-10 on the season and 3-3 in conference play.
Gustavus 15, Bethel 11
Game one started off as a one-sided contest, as Bethel took a commanding 7-2 lead after the top of the third inning. This was the last time Bethel held the lead, however, as a 10-hit. 10-run bottom of the third for the Gusties propelled them to victory.
Bryce Novak,
Brady Schmitz, and
Gavin Baker started the inning off with consecutive hits to load the bases. This brought
Drake Siens to the plate, where he launched a fast ball deep into left field for a grand slam. Siens brought the Gusties back into the game, closing to within one run, 7-6.
A solo home run by
Isaac Becker followed shortly after, evening the score 7-7. The Gustie bats never slowed down, leading to another large string of hits. Six consecutive hits scored 5 more runs to take the lead, 12-7.
Gustavus brought in three more runs in the bottom of the fourth to hold a 15-7 lead.
Danny Gavin doubled to right center to score Siens, followed by a sac fly from
Sam Schneider and a wild pitch that scored Becker.
The victory was fueled by a tremendous hitting offense, but was held strong by the combined pitching efforts from
Hunter Sheehan and
Jackson Thielen. The duo held Bethel to only four hits in the final three innings.
Luke Siegle started and pitched four innings, picking up the win to move his record to 5-2 on the year.
Six different Gusties tallied multiple hits at the plate, led by
Bryce Novak, who went 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Novak is now the sole owner of the program career hit record, passing Tony Konicek's 228 that has held since 2007. The senior now has 232 hits in his career.
Gustavus 0, Bethel 7
The Royals set the tone for game two early, starting off with a solo home run from their lead-off batter. The solo bomb was followed up by a string of hits that led to a 3-0 Bethel lead at the end of the first inning.
The Gusties' hot bats cooled down in game two, as the home team was held to just four hits, two off the bat of
Brady Schmitz.
Bethel's John Solfest kept the Gustie bats in check, pitching a complete game nine-inning shutout for the Royals.
The last four Bethel runs came during the eighth inning from a RBI double and two RBI singles.
Gustavus' bullpen combined for six strikeouts and only three walks through nine innings. Noah Meffort was credited with the loss on the game, bringing his record to 0-2. Bethel's John Solfest improved his record to 2-4 on the year after the shutdown performance.
The Golden Gusties are back on the diamond Saturday, April 13th, in Duluth against St. Scholastica for another doubleheader set to begin at 1 p.m, and 3:30 p.m.
