MANKATO, Minn. - Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Bethany Lutheran baseball team rallied for five runs to complete a comeback and claim the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament Championship with a 6-3 win over Crown. With the victory, the Vikings improve to 29-12 on the season and now await their NCAA Tournament destination, which will be announced Monday at 11 a.m. The trip to the NCAA tournament is the fourth in program history, with the others coming in 2018, 2019, and 2023.
Hear from the Vikings
Here's what head coach Ryan Kragh had to say about the game.
Kragh: "We played a little bit tense early which is so odd for our team because we like to have fun. Our program is based on family and Bethany is based on family and we all stick together and have each other's backs and at the end of the day it showed."
Inside the Box Score
Crown would get a quick run off Bethany starter Adryen Tietz in the top of the first inning, as a hit batter advanced to second on a wild pitch, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on a Bethany error.
Bethany responded in the bottom half of the inning with a strong start. Eli Fest and Gary Swann opened the frame with back-to-back singles, and Aidan Russell was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Xander Meissner brought in the tying run with a sacrifice fly to center. Another hit batter reloaded the bases, but the Polars turned a sharp 4-6-3 double play to escape further damage and keep the score tied at 1-1.
Tietz was tagged for another run in the top of the second as two more hit batters came back to haunt him, with a two-out double plating one and giving Crown a 2-1 lead.
From there, both starters settled in. Crown's Jacob Van Dam and Tietz locked into a pitcher's duel, keeping both offenses scoreless through the fifth.
The Polars broke the deadlock in the sixth. A fielding error allowed a runner to reach, a passed ball moved him to second, and a double to the left field corner made it 3-1.
Ty Vollmar came on in relief in the seventh and found himself in early trouble. A walk and a single put two on with one out. After a wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position, the senior closer locked in, striking out the cleanup and five-hole hitters swinging to keep it 3-1.
Bethany threatened in the bottom of the seventh, getting two runners on, but Van Dam pitched out of the jam to hold the score at 3-1 headed to the eighth.
Vollmar tossed a clean top of the eighth, and Crown turned to its bullpen in the bottom half. The Vikings greeted the new arms with a surge: Eli Fest led off with a single, and Gary Swann followed with a double to bring him home and cut the deficit to 3-2. A walk put two runners aboard, prompting another pitching change. After a lineout to shallow center for the first out, Nolan Spence ripped a double down the left-field line to tie the game at 3-3.
With two runners still in scoring position, Crown opted to intentionally walk Josh Robb to load the bases and set up force plays. The move backfired when Malachi Santiago was hit by a pitch, forcing in the go-ahead run. Bethany then continued to add on—Seth Jones singled to plate another, and Fest drew a bases-loaded walk to extend the lead to 6-3 heading into the ninth.
Trent Ash, the winning pitcher from Thursday's opening round game, came out of the bullpen to close. He induced a flyout to start the inning, then gave up a double. A strikeout looking brought Bethany one out away, and after a walk brought the tying run to the plate, Ash sealed the win with a strikeout swinging to punch the Vikings ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
Tietz turned in a strong outing, allowing just one earned run and striking out three in six innings of work. Vollmar earned the win in relief, giving up only one hit and striking out three over two innings. After picking up the save, Ash earned UMAC Tournament MVP honors for his performance.
Swann led Bethany at the plate, knocking three hits in the contest, while Fest and Spence each had two with Fest scoring a pair of runs.
