MANKATO, Minn. - The Bethany Lutheran baseball team hosted Minnesota Morris on Saturday afternoon and claimed a pair of big wins by scores of 10-0 and 18-5. With the victories the Vikings move to 17-11 overall and 13-4 in the UMAC while the Cougars fall to 11-21 overall and 6-11 in the conference.

Bethany 10 - 0 Morris (7 innings)
Drew Hedtke was aiming to bounce back after losing his first contest of the year last weekend and did so in a big way in game one, going the distance in a seven inning shutout. 

After Hedtke worked around a pair of walks to open up the top of the second inning, Liam Peterson would give the sophomore some run support in the bottom half as he hit a no doubt blast over the left field fence to put the Vikings up 2-0 after two innings. 

Bethany would then use great situational hitting over the next four innings to produce a single run in the third, fifth, and sixth innings as they led 5-0 after six. 

Following Hedtke's third straight inning of putting down the Cougars 1-2-3, the Vikings offense exploded in the bottom half of the seventh. Malachi Santiago would open things up with a ground rule double before an Aidan Russell single brought him in. Peterson would then double to put two in scoring position before Liam Peterson brought them both home to make things 8-0. A walk and an error would put two more runners on and allow a run to cross to make things 9-0 before Eli Fest put the game away with a walk-off single to the fence in center field to secure the win. 

Hedtke was dominant, striking out six and allowing just one hit in seven innings of work for his fourth win of the year. 

Fest led the Vikings with three hits in game one with Peterson also posting multiple knocks with two. 

Bethany 18 - 5 Morris (7 innings)
After an error would allow Morris to plate the games first run in the top of the first inning, the Vikings would go down quickly in the bottom half. 

Bethany would break through in the second for their first run of the contest as Will Carlson would single with the bases loaded to move everyone up a base with one out and even things at one apiece. A Viking strikeout would get the Cougars there second out before Santiago stepped up, and after falling behind in the count, would turn around on a fastball and drive it over the left field wall for a grand slam to make it 5-1 after two innings. 

Carlson would add another RBI base hit in the third inning before UMM answered in the top of the fourth with a run of their own to make the score 6-2. 

Three straight hits from Santiago, Aidan Russell, and Nolan Spence to open the fourth would put Bethany up 8-2, but Morris would get a timely double play to limit the damage to two and get out of the inning. 

Bethany would add another two runs in the fifth, after Josh Robb and Santiago posted back-to-back RBI at-bats to make the score 10-2, but the Cougars answered the bell as they put up a three spot in the top of the sixth to make it 10-5. 

The Vikings would post a monster inning in the sixth though, as they would go on to score eight runs on just two hits to take an 18-5 lead. Morris would issue six free passes in the inning, and it was Russell who first made them pay with a grand slam to make the score 16-5, before Peterson would make the next walk hurt with his second home run of the day to bring the tally to 18-5. 

Senior Jeremy Heikke would come on in the seventh for Bethany, closing out the games final two outs in the top of the seventh to secure the win. 

Santiago and Peterson led the Vikings with three hits in this one, while Russell, Fest, and Carlson each had two. 

Gavin Jacobsen earned the win on the mound, striking out six in four innings of work and allowing one earned run. 

Bethany and Minnesota Morris will now meet on Tuesday at 2 p.m., as tomorrow's contest has been pushed back due to expected weather.