MANKATO, Minn. - The Bethany Lutheran baseball team claimed the series sweep with a pair of 10-run rule victories over North Central Saturday. The Vikings, who move to 16-10 overall and 9-0 in the UMAC, won game one 13-2 before a 15-5 decision in game two. 

Hear from the Vikings
Here's what winning pitcher from game two Brandon Schmitz had to say about the games.

Schmitz: "Game one went well. [Adryen] Tietz and [Ty] Vollmar both threw great and executed well on the mound. The offense came into today ready to hit. Game two we battled through a few tough innings but grinded it out like good teams do. Excited to see what this team has in the tank for the rest of the year and can't wait to get back to work on Monday."

Inside the Box Scores

Bethany 13 - 2 North Central 
After a 1-2-3 top of the first from Tietz on the mound, Eli Fest would give him some immediate run support with his first career home run to lead off the bottom half. An NCU error would then bring Aidan Russell to the plate where he would blast one over the video board in right for the quick 3-0 lead. Xander Meissner would then double with Nolan Spence following with a single before both players came around to score on at-bats from Josh Robb and Malachi Santiago. 

A few scoreless frames would follow before the Rams scored their first runs in the top of the fourth after a double and single plated their first run to make it 5-1. 

The score would hold their for a few innings before the Vikings would put some insurance runs on the board in the bottom of the fifth. Gary Swann would open the frame with a double and score on an NCU error on the next play before the error came back to bite the Rams as Russell would score on a Spence single with just one out. Seth Jones would then provide the next two runs with a double to make the score 9-1 before another error allowed him to score to push the lead to 10-1. 

NCU would get a run back in the top of the sixth to make it 10-2 but the Vikings would answer back with a Robb bases loaded double to plate two before a wild pitch in the next at-bat allowed another run to score to push it to 13-2. 

Vollmar would work around a walk in the seventh to close the door and seal the win. 

Tietz got the win on the mound, striking out eight in six innings of work while allowing two runs and five hits. Spence led Bethany at the plate with a pair of hits in the contest while Robb had a team-best three RBI. 

Bethany 15 - 5 North Central 
Game two was much more back and forth than game one, as the Vikings struck first in the bottom of the second inning thanks to a Santiago single and a pair of NCU miscues to make it 1-0.

Sean Gamble then ran into some trouble on the mound in the third, as three walks and four hits in the inning would allow four runs to score with just one out recorded, but the junior would get a pair of key strikeouts to get out of the jam. 

The Viking offense had his back in the bottom half, as they would open the frame with three walks before a Meissner sac fly followed by a Robb 2-RBI double made it 4-4. 

North Central then added another run in the top of the fifth thanks to a clutch two-out double, but the Vikings would play small ball to plate a run in the bottom half with Swann notching an RBI single to even things back up. 

Schmitz would come on in relief in the fifth inning, and after a few scoreless frames, the Vikings would strike again in the sixth as Meissner, Spence, and Robb would all tally consecutive two-out RBI base hits to make the score 8-5. 

The Vikings were then aided by some NCU miscues in the seventh, as the visitors made three errors in the inning and Swann, Russell, and Meissner would each tally RBI hits to help push five runs across and claim a 13-5 lead after seven. 

Another scoreless frame from Schmitz set Bethany up to walk it off via 10-run rule in the eighth. With runners on the corners and two away, Fest would steal second with Will Carlson scoring on the throw before Swann would single to knock home Fest for the win. 

Swann had four hits to pace the Viking offense in game two, while Robb had three and Meissner and Jones each added two. Schmitz got the win in relief, going four innings and allowing just one hit and striking out three. 

Bethany will be back in action on Tuesday when they host Macalester for 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. contests.