SAINT PAUL, Minn. - No. 18/21 Gustavus baseball secured at least a share of its 16th Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship Friday, sweeping Macalester 8-2 and 12-7, finishing the regular season 33-7 overall and 17-3 in the league. The Gusties will find out Sunday if they are the No. 1 or 2 seed for the MIAC playoffs as they await the results of Bethel vs. Saint Mary's. The Royals hold the tiebreaker over the Gusties should they sweep the Cardinals.
Gustavus 8, Macalester 2
After two scoreless frames the Gusties broke through in the third as
Sam Schneider walked and later scored on a fielder's choice RBI by
Chris Knowles. The Scots immediately tied the game with a run on two hits in the bottom half.
Schneider scored again in the fifth after another walk and an RBI double by
Brayden Kohls. Knowles followed with a two-run double and
Drake Siens capped a four-run inning with an RBI single.
The Gusties added three insurance runs in the seventh as
Luke Siegle hit a two-run double and
Joe Burns hit a sac fly. The Scots plated their final fun in the home half.
Brevin Goetz improved to 4-0 with a complete game victory. He allowed two runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts. Kohls led at the plate, batting 3-for-4 with two runs, a double, and an RBI.
Gustavus 12, Macalester 7
Riding the high of game one, the Gusties jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning. Knowles, Siens, Burns, and
Isaac Becker each knocked in a run. The visitors extended their lead to six in the fourth as Knowles hit a sac fly to score Schneider.
Luke Siegle was dominant on the mound through five innings, not allowing a base runner until the fourth and a hit until the sixth. The Scots got their bats going in the sixth, though, scoring five runs on four hits to end Siegle's day.
Jackson Thielen came in relief and allowed two of the five runs, but maintained the Gusties lead at 6-5.
Gustavus added a lone run in the seventh after
Oliver Leupold reached on an error, advanced to third on a Burns double, and scored on a wild pitch. Macalester punched right back in the home half, scoring a run after a double and RBI single to make it a one-run game. The Scots then tied the game 7-7 in the eighth with a two-out rally, but the Gusties had a big response in the ninth with five runs on six hits and an error. Leupold started the rally with a double off the right field fence. Burns singled and
Ross Hebel drove in Leupold with a fielder's choice. Schneider hit a two-out single and
Danny Gavin ensued with an RBI single to center. Kohls and Knowles each hit RBI singles after a pitching change and Kohls scored the final run on a throwing error.
After dealing with an injury for most of the season,
Mitch Casperson made his return to the mound in the ninth and closed out the game with two pop ups and a strikeout.
Kohls once again led at the plate, hitting 4-for-5 with two runs, a double, and an RBI. Kohls now leads the MIAC with 71 hits, which is currently tied for third most in a single season in program history. Gavin scored his 56th run of the season, which leads the MIAC and is four shy of setting the single season program record.
Logan Feeney (2-1) earned the win after pitching 1.1 innings of relief. He allowed one earned run on two hits with two strikeouts.
The four-team, double elimination MIAC playoffs begin next Thursday at Saint John's.
