MANKATO, Minn.—The Bethany Lutheran baseball team (16-13 overall, 12-6 UMAC) held on to a 14-8 victory over Crown College (20-12, 13-5), which saw its late-inning comeback effort halted Sunday afternoon. Bethany was the road team, though it honored its seniors for Senior Day after the game.
The Vikings led off the game with a triple from junior Ben Hopper (North Mankato, Minn.) and followed that with a walk, three singles and a sacrifice fly to take a 4-0 lead after one frame.
The score remained unchanged heading to the fourth inning, when Bethany sent 11 men to the plate and pushed across six runs. BLC plated two more in the top of the seventh to make it 12-0.
Senior Connor Merton (Perth, Australia) blanked the Storm through six frames, but a grand slam followed by a walk in the bottom of the seventh ended his day and extended the game.
Classmate Nick Shubert (Mapleton, Minn.) came on in relief of Merton. Despite giving up a two-run homer to the first batter he faced, Shubert settled down to finish the inning with the Vikings up 12-6.
In the eighth frame, Bethany answered by plating two. Crown loaded the bases in the home half of the inning, but it only mustered one run.
The Storm once again filled the bases in the ninth, but junior Daniel Salinas (St. Paul, Minn.) induced a comebacker to the mound and started a double play to conclude the game.
Merton (3-2) was the winning pitcher. He gave up four earned runs and struck out four in 6.1 innings.
Bethany finished with a season-high 20 hits, besting its previous mark of 15 against Wheaton (Il.) on March 8.
Freshman Malachi Santiago (Gilbert, Ariz.) and juniors Liam Peterson (Port Orchard, Wash.) and Matt Verdugo (Arvada, Col.) all had four-hit days. The four hits were career highs for Santiago and Peterson, who both drove in two runs. Verdugo also had a team-high four RBIs.
Freshman Aidan Russell (Gilbert, Ariz.) went 2-5 with three RBIs and two stolen bases.
Other players with multi-hit days were senior Hunter Pearce (Berthoud, Col.) and junior Vaughn Pouncy (St. Paul, Minn.).
BLC will face North Central on the road for a three-game set to conclude its regular season. The series begins Friday at 3 p.m.
