Hot-hitting Polars sweep Knights

Two days after defeating MLC 17-2 at MLC Baseball Field, Crown College returned and swept the UMAC baseball series in a doubleheader Saturday with a 3-1 win in the opener and a 12-4 win in the finale.

The Polars, now 15-16 overall and 13-5 in UMAC play, clinched a UMAC playoff berth with the sweep.

The Polars entered the doubleheader against MLC leading the conference in batting average (.321) and homers (43). They improved those numbers on Saturday at the expense of the Knights.

MLC had a relatively clean Game 1 with just one error committed, but that one error led to two unearned runs off Knights starter Matt Rieger.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau
Martin Luther College’s Aaron Bode pitches during the second game of a UMAC doubleheader against Crown College on Saturday at MLC Baseball Field in New Ulm.

Rieger pitched well otherwise, limiting the damage and allowing seven hits and no walks while striking out three in a complete-game effort.

“Matt Rieger pitched well for us, that’s his fifth complete game,” MLC head coach Randy Cox said. “We didn’t play well enough to win. It was a great game, 3-1, Crown’s a solid hitting team. … but Matt Rieger did a heck of a job. The first game, though, we stranded some runners, couldn’t get a clutch hit, but very proud of him as a senior. He’s developed as a pitcher each year. He’s had some tough losses this year, but I believe it’s five complete games for his career and three or four this year. But he threw well for us.”

Crown got its first run in Game 1 after an RBI single by Bryan Gerbers, while the Polars’ other runs came after an error and an RBI double by Howie Hatton and a sac fly by Ashton Long in the third. The Knights got a sac fly from Parker Winghart in the eighth to score Alex Ritter and get on the board, but they went down 1-2-3 in the ninth to finish the game.

Both teams had seven hits in the game.

Ryan Vondracek got the win in a complete-game effort, giving up one earned run on seven hits and a walk while striking out four.

Ritter and Spencer Lilienthal each went 2 for 4 for the Knights, while Winghart was 1 for 3 with the RBI.

Hatton was 2 for 4 with a triple, a double and an RBI to lead the Polars at the plate.

In Game 2, however, the Polars outhit the Knights 16-8 and had just one error to MLC’s five.

Connor Heckendorf took the loss in six innings, allowing 13 hits and no walks for three earned runs while striking out one.

Jacob Van Dam earned the Game 2 win for Crown in seven innings of work, allowing seven hits and four walks for three earned runs. He struck out seven.

The second game had the early makings of a back-and-forth contest as the Polars plated two in the first. The Knights got one back in the bottom of the inning on an RBI double to right by Winghart and tied it in the third on a sac fly off the bat of Carter Seltz that scored Lilienthal.

Crown got four runs in the fourth on five hits to take a 6-2 lead, though, and got a two-run homer to left by Hatton to go up 8-2 in the sixth.

Seltz, the Knights’ left fielder, tracked Hatton’s home run ball well and had a leaping attempt at the fence, but the ball continued to carry left and just out of his reach.

Mark Vogel grounded out to first to bring home Jackson Lindemann in the bottom of the sixth for the Knights to make the score 8-3.

Aaron Bode took the mound in the seventh for MLC and gave up a leadoff double to Long and a single to Ethan Habetler. An error then allowed Habetler to move up to second and Bode to score before a passed ball allowed Habetler to reach third.

Matthew Shaugabay was hit by a pitch, but Bode was able to turn a double play after snaring a line drive off the bat of Charlie Joyce and throwing to first to get Shaugabay.

After Bode issued back-to-back walks, two errors allowed three more runs to score for a 12-3 Polars lead.

Joseph Olson pitched the final two innings for the Knights and allowed one hit and one walk for no runs while striking out one. The Knights got one more run in the eighth after an error in right scored Lilienthal from second.

Lilienthal was 2 for 3 with two walks and three runs scored to lead MLC in Game 2, while Winghart was 2 for 5 with an RBI and Vogel was 1 for 2 with an RBI.

Habetler was 3 for 4 with an RBI and two runs scored to lead the Polars in Game 2, while Hatton was 3 for 5 with his home run, five RBIs and three runs scored.

“We’ve got a couple of guys right now that have hamstring [injuries], Alex [Ritter], Mason [Cox] and now we have our starting third baseman with a hip flexor,” coach Cox said. “It’s been kind of a trying end of the year here now with the injuries, but we’ve got to fight through. Some of the freshman are really picking it up, but consistency and play, I was not happy with our errors in Game 2. Game 1 we played well. It’s kind of been, in a series, we’ve played usually one or two of the games really well and the other games, we just can’t put it together. Consistency is the big thing that bothers me right now.”

The Knights, 5-26 overall and 2-16 in the UMAC, wrap up their season with a three-game series at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin. The first game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. first pitch Friday, with a doubleheader starting at 2 p.m. Saturday.

“We’ll keep competing,” coach Cox said. “We’ve got Northland next, we’ve got to go up there. We’re still hitting, we’re still hitting as a team, we’re hitting around .300 clip. But, again, we’ve got to cut down the errors in certain situations.”