ARDEN HILLS, Minn. - No. 14/16 Gustavus baseball suffered its first conference loss Wednesday, 5-4 at Bethel, while game two was suspended after eight innings due to darkness. Game two was completed Thursday with a 7-4 win for the Royals. The Gusties are now 19-6 overall and 5-2 in the MIAC.
 
Gustavus 4, Bethel 5
 
Bethel got the early advantage in the first, starting a two-out rally with nobody on base. Consecutive singles and a walk loaded the bases and then a wild pitch scored a run.
 
The Gusties tied the game in the second after Ross Hebel singled and later scored on a base hit by Brayden Kohls. The visitors then took a 2-1 lead in the third as Luke Siegle and Drake Siens both hit singles, moved up on a sac bunt by Brady Schmitz, and Siegle scored on a sac fly by Joe Burns.
 
Two more Gusties runs were scored in the fourth. Danny Gavin walked, Chris Knowles singled, and both advanced on wild pitch. Gavin and Knowles then scored on a single by Siegle.
 
The Royals tacked on a couple runs in the fifth to make it a one-run game, but Gustie starter Adam Biewen limited the damage. Biewen pitched an uneventful sixth inning and left the game with a 4-3 lead. Biewen allowed two earned runs on five hits with a career-high 10 strikeouts in a no decision.
 
Bethel saved its best for last, hitting consecutive doubles to tie the game and then hit a walk off single to win it.
 
Knowles (2-3, R, HBP), Siegle (2-3, R, 2 RBI, BB), and Schmitz (2-3, 2B, SB, SAC) paced the offense. Jackson Thielen suffered the loss on the mound, dropping to 3-1.
 
Gustavus 4, Bethel 7 
 
The Gusties wasted little time scoring runs in game two, plating three in the first inning. Gavin led off with a walk and was driven home on a sac fly by Knowles. Kohls, who reached on a single, scored on a double by Siegle, who scored on the next at-bat as Siens hit a single for a 3-0 lead.
 
Gustavus took a 4-0 advantage in the second as Knowles hit his team-leading fifth homer of the season, but that was all the offense the Gusties were able to muster the rest of the evening.
 
The Royals scored twice in the third on a solo homer, single, and RBI double. They added another solo homer in the fourth, cutting the deficit to one, and tied the game in the fifth after a walk, wild pitch, and RBI single.
 
Both the sixth and seventh innings went scoreless before the Royals took their first lead of the game in the eighth. The home team plated three runs on three hits and an error and the game was suspended after eight frames with the Royals leading 7-4. 
 
Siens led the Gusties at the plate, batting 3-for-3 with an RBI and a walk. Brevin Goetz started on the mound and went four innings, allowing three runs on nine hits with four strikeouts. Logan Feeney suffered the loss after 1.1 innings of relief, allowing one run on one hit with three Ks. 
 
Gustavus returns home for a MIAC doubleheader against Augsburg on Saturday.
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