ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran baseball team put forth a dominant effort on Saturday afternoon as they defeated Northwestern 12-1. With the win the Vikings improve to 11-8 overall and 7-3 in the UMAC.

Both the Viking offense and defense stepped up in the rainy conditions on Saturday, with Brody Curtiss getting the start on the bump.

After Bethany was held scoreless through the first two innings, the Eagles would get to Curtiss in the bottom of the second. They would notch four singles in the inning to plate one run, but Curtiss would get a bases loaded strikeout to end the inning.

After Eli Fest and Matt Verdugo walked to start the third, a pair of wild pitches would bring Fest around to score while Verdugo moved up to third. The wild pitches ended up being a moot point though, as Aidan Russell pulled one over the right field fence to round the bases and put Bethany up 3-0. Ben Hopper would follow the home run with a double before moving to third on a wild pitch and scoring on a Liam Peterson ground ball to go up 4-1.

After a quick bottom of the third from Curtiss, the Vikings would add to their lead in the fourth. After a pair of Eagle errors and a hit batter would load the bases, Verdugo would groundout to second to plate one run and move each runner up a base. Russell then followed that up with a single to plate another before a passed ball allowed Bethany to plate its third run in the inning and take a 7-1 lead.

Curtiss would load the bases in the fourth with a walk and pair of hit batters, but he would work his way out of it and get a strikeout looking to end the threat. Liam Peterson then reached to start the fifth and stole both second and third. With Peterson on third and one out, Brent Fowler delivered a single to center to put the Vikings up 8-1 after five innings of play. Peterson one-upped his two base stealing performance in the top of the sixth though, as he blasted a home run to left center with a runner on and two outs to make the score 10-1.

Curtiss exited the game for Bethany after five innings, where he struck out seven and allowed six hits. Ty Vollmar took over for Curtiss with Bethany leading 10-1 and tossed two scoreless frames, striking out five. To close things out in the final two innings RJ Brothen stepped on the mound and tossed two scoreless innings, allowing no baserunners and striking out four.

Bethany plated two more runs in the ninth, with Vaughn Pouncy and Malachi Santiago each reaching base to star the inning. Fest and Russell each then recorded singles to bring the two runners home and give Bethany what ended up being the 12-1 final.

Russell had a massive day for the Vikings, racking up four hits and four RBI in the game. Peterson also added a pair of hits, tallying three RBI and two runs scored.