ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Bethany Lutheran baseball team traveled to the cities for the opening round of the UMAC Tournament on Thursday afternoon and fell to Crown College by a score of 2-1 in a 10 inning contest. With the loss the Vikings fall to 20-13 overall while the Polars move to 18-19. 

Drew Hedtke got the start on the bump and showed from the get-go that it it was going to be a tough night at the plate for the Polar hitters. Unfortunately for the Vikings, Hedtke's counterpart Tristan Camp was equally as good and gave the Bethany hitters fits early. 

Hedtke would open up the game by striking out the side in the top of the first inning, with Camp matching his efficiency by putting the first six hitters he faced down in order. 

Both pitchers continued to cruise through the first four innings, before Hedtke ran into some trouble in the fifth. An error to open the inning followed by a hit put two runners on. Crown would then bunt for a hit with the ensuing throw resulting in an error allowing a run to score and keeping two in scoring position. A hit batter would load the bases before the Viking hurler recorded a strikeout followed by a pop out and fielders choice to get out of the inning with just one run allowed. 

It wasn't until the bottom half of the sixth inning that Bethany would score their first run, as Aidan Russell would hit an opposite field home run to even the score at one. An error on the next batter put a runner at second with no one out but the Vikings couldn't bring him in as the game stayed tied. 

Things would then stay scoreless through the next three innings, with Hedtke stranding runners at third in both the eighth and ninth as the teams would head to extra frames. 

In the top of the tenth inning a single and an error would allow two Polar runners on before a fielder's choice and strikeout gave Bethany two outs. The error proved costly though, as a two out base hit would drive in a run to make it 2-1 before a Hedtke strikeout got the Vikings out of the inning. 

Will Carlson would lead off the 10th with a base hit on the first pitch of the inning before advancing to second on a wild pitch. That was where he would be left stranded though, as the Polars would get three straight strikeouts to end the game and seal the win. 

Hedtke threw as well as you could in a loss in this one, going 10 innings and striking out 13 while allowing zero earned runs.

The Vikings struggled at the plate producing just six hits in the contest with Russell leading the team with two.

Bethany will now be back in action tomorrow at 10 a.m. where they will take on Northwestern.