Bethany Lutheran College Athletics

WHITEWATER, Wis. - For the second straight day, Bethany baseball upset the defending national champion UW-Whitewater on its home turf, winning an 11-inning thriller 8-7 to advance to the NCAA Super Regionals. Kyle Carlberg's sac fly in the bottom of the 11th scored Xavier Palmer, sending the Vikings (34-6) to next weekend's super regionals against an opponent and site to be determined. 

Max Athmann (3-5, R, RBI, HR, SAC), Xander Meissner (3-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2B, HR, BB), Gary Swann (3-6, RBI), and Vincent Curzie (3-5, RBI, 2B, SAC) contributed three hits apiece to lead the Vikings at the plate. 

Sean Gamble earned the win after tossing the final 3.2 innings. Gamble (3-0) allowed one run on two hits with seven strikeouts against 15 batters. Drew Hedtke started and went 3.2 innings, allowing just one run on four hits. Off one day rest, Aidan Byrd pitched 2.2 innings of relief without allowing a hit and striking out two. 

Whitewater took an early 1-0 lead in the first and the Vikings responded with one of their own in the second after Curzie singled and Yunior Pena scored on an error. In the third, Meissner hit a two-run homer - his team-leading 12th of the season, which ties his own single season program record - for a 3-1 lead. 

Bethany scored again in the fifth as Gary Swann singled home Jayden Knutson. After a scoreless sixth, the Vikings added two more in the seventh for a 6-1 lead. Athmann hit a no-doubt homer to left and Curzie followed with an RBI ground-rule double. 

Down but certainly not out, the Warhawks rallied for six runs in the eighth, taking an 8-7 lead. Whitewater hit three homers in the frame and the go-ahead run was scored on a double. 

As they did in yesterday's game, the Vikings responded to the Warhawks' punch with a run immediately in the bottom half. After loading the bases, Knutson scored on a wild pitch to tie the game 7-7, but UWW was able to get out of the jam. 

Both the ninth and 10th frames went scoreless, setting up the walk off win in the bottom of the 11th. Swann led off with an infield single and was pinch ran for by Xavier Palmer, Curzie advanced Palmer to second with a sac bunt and Seth Jones ensued with a pinch-hit single, moving Palmer to third. Carlberg then ended the game with a sac fly to right. 

This was the third appearance in a baseball regional championship game for a UMAC team (first was St. Scholastica in 2008 and then Northwestern in 2021) and first regional championship in UMAC baseball history. 
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