Mother Nature the winner on Sunday

Manchester University put together an outstanding weekend. The Black & Gold followed a sweep of the Fightin' Engineers on Saturday afternoon at Gratz Field with a split against Anderson in Sunday's twin bill. Manchester won game one 10-6 and dropped the nightcap 11-2 in Sunday.
Manchester athletics photo

No. 2 Washington University extended its winning streak to 12 by defeating No. 7 North Central College 4-3 on Sunday. WashU improves to 12-0 while North Central dips to 9-3. The Bears tallied three hits in the first and one in the second, but were unable to create any scoring opportunities. The Cardinals put two runs on the board off of a double and a single to take the lead at 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning. WashU found its offensive rhythm in the seventh inning, beginning with a two-RBI single from senior Johnny LaMantia. Freshman Clayton Miller and senior Henry Singer were both walked with the bases loaded to earn RBIs and take a 4-2 lead. North Central scored its last run of the game in the seventh inning to make it a 4-3 game. Senior Kyle Coates closed out the game from the mound to secure the win and earn a save.

Thanks to six total home runs on the day, No. 25 Denison rebounded from Saturday's doubleheader losses to Wooster to take both games from the No. 23 Scots on Sunday afternoon, 11-9 and 13-8, at Art Murray Field in Wooster. Looking to avenge a pair of losses from Saturday in Granville, the Big Red broke free from a 4-0 deficit in the top of the fifth to game the game one win. Will Krushena led the DU bats with a 3-for-5 effort at the plate with two RBI, three runs, and a home run. The Denison bats stayed hot in the opening inning of game two as the Big Red accounted for five runs on six hits, including a trio of home runs from Dylan Hunter, Brian McAuliffe, and Danny Alvarez. Denison turned in 13 total hits in game two. The Big Red finished game two with four home runs and combined for six home runs on the day, including two from Max Lahn.

UW-Superior handed Saint John's its first loss of the season with a 8-7 victory in game one of a doubleheader at Haugen Field and Becker Park Sunday. The Johnnies (10-1) earned a split on the day with a 9-3 victory in the second game. Saint John's is receiving votes in the latest D3baseball.com top 25 poll and had outscored the opposition 71-25 coming into play on Sunday. The Yellowjackets got multiple-hit outings from the Nos. 2-5 hitters in the order, including 3-for-5 efforts from both Brandon Rolf and Bryce Flanagan, spearheading a 15-hit attack in the game one win. Joey Barker gave UWS (7-5) a solid four-inning start on the mound, limiting SJU to four runs and six hits before giving way to Christian Garcia and Matt Tappe, who threw the final four innings, earning the victory. In the nightcap, SJU opened a 3-2 lead and tacked on single runs in the third and fourth innings and put the game out of reach with four more in the sixth for the final margin.

Senior John Hayes tied the school record for career saves on Sunday as Augustana rode a four-run third inning to a 7-5 win over North Park at Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field. Coach Greg Wallace's crew moved to 13-2 on the year and 5-2 in the CCIW, while the guests dropped to 6-7 overall and 1-7 in the league. Augusta built a 7-2 lead and saw the visitors whittled away at the deficit A wild pitch scored made it 7-5, but the Augustana closer retired the next three batters to leave two runners stranded. Hayes pitched around a one-out single in the ninth to earn his fourth save of the season and 13th of his career—tying Teddy Grothe's school record set from 2000-03.

St. Scholastica played games at Wade Stadium for the first time since the 2019 season and swept a non-conference doubleheader from Northland College on Sunday by scores of 12-1 and 11-1. St. Scholastica's first three batters in the lineup all recorded three hits and Mitchell Novak drove in three to take game one 12-1. The CSS offense spread out the scoring in game two, recording runs in five of the six batting innings to complete the sweep 11-1. CSS had eight stolen bases in game one with Luke Schemenauer swiping three. Schemenauer also excelled at the plate finishing 6-for-7 on the day. Matt Tautges fell a homer shy of the cycle in game two.

Millikin edged the Elmhurst University Bluejays 3-2 in a CCIW contest on March 28 at the Workman Family Baseball Field in Decatur. Millikin got excellent pitching in the game. Starter Tanner Coleman improved to 4-0 on the season picking up the win after throwing five innings allowing three hits and two runs (one earned) while striking out three. Evan Lawrence pitched three innings allowing three hits and striking out five. After an Elmhurst runner reached second base after a Millikin error in the top of the eighth inning. Lawrence struck out the next two Bluejays to shut down the threat. Brent Beals earned his fourth save of the season retiring the final three batters with one strikeout. Tommy Shaw had two hits for the Big Blue.

Gustavus swept Bethany Lutheran in a non-conference doubleheader Sunday at the Gustie Baseball Field by scores of 3-0 and 4-3. In his first start of the season, Charlie Hutchinson tossed a complete game shutout. Hutchinson allowed just three hits with nine strikeouts against 27 batters. Kathan Decker got to play the role of hero in game two by hitting a walk-off single in the bottom of the eighth, scoring Cole Pengilly for the game-winner. Pengilly reached with a one-out double to the right field corner and advanced to third on a single by Azar, setting up Decker’s walk-off.

UW-Platteville handed the UW-La Crosse its first loss of the young season, a 2-1 decision in the first game of a doubleheader in La Crosse on Sunday. The win for the Pioneers also snapped the program's 4-game losing slide against the Eagles. A late rally by the Eagles led to a 10-9 win in game two and earned La Crosse a split of the twinbill. The Eagles did not create any damage for Sam Hernandez in the opener. The right-hander struck out five and scattered four walks with no more than one runner on base in any frame. Even the hit he gave up to Zach Carney to lead off the sixth was quickly erased a batter later when Kozak cut him down attempting to steal second. "In the pregame bullpen I felt confident in all my pitches," said Hernandez, "my slider was working well and being able to hit my spots with my fastball helped make it much more effective. 60% of their outs were ground balls so having my defense behind me playing clean was very beneficial. Everyone was locked in."

Pacific University won all three games against Lewis and Clark on Saturday in Portland. The Boxers offense recorded double digit hits in each of the three games. Following a leadoff single by freshman Damon Tanner, Pacific went on a 2 out rally that produced 6 runs in the second inning that put the Boxers ahead for good to take game one 10-4. Game 2 saw the Boxers needing to come from behind after Lewis and Clark scored 2 runs in the top of the first inning. On 14 hits, the Boxers were able to take game two 11-8. The Boxer offense was led by Ryan Krout who was able to produce 3 hits on 5 at bats including 4 RBI's and 1 three run homerun in the 3rd inning. Krout was a triple away from hitting for the cycle in Game 2. Game three saw the Boxers offense start right where they left off following game 2 by producing 14 hits accounting for 16 runs. Two different Boxer hitters, Tyler Quinn and Chase Anderson, were each responsible for a homerun in Game 3. The Boxers starting pitcher senior Derek Eubanks pitched 3 innings and only gave up 1 hit on the way to his second win of the season.

Rose-Hulman swept team its Sunday doubleheader against Defiance, picking up 8-4 and 10-1 victories. Rose-Hulman improved to 6-5 on the season, while Defiance fell to 4-10. Game one saw its two major highlights in the first inning, the first being a line-drive home run by Logan Cody. Later in the inning, Josh Mesenbrink added a two-run, opposite field home run. Each home run was both Cody's and Mesenbrink's first of the year. Defiance sparked a late four-run comeback in the eighth inning that fell short, after Rose-Hulman had built an 8-0 lead. Game two started nearly the same way as game one. Brett Tuttle led offensively for Rose-Hulman, finishing 2-5 with 2 runs scored. Josh Erpenbeck picked up his first pitching win of the season, throwing 5.2 innings and striking out six.

Freshman Luke Carlson had a heck of a collegiate debut going 4-for-7 at the dish with a double and a home run while driving in five. Carlson and the Royals picked up a sweep of Augsburg Sunday evening inside U.S. Bank Stadium improving to 8-3 on the year and 2-0 in MIAC play. Bethel took the seven-inning MIAC opener 7-4 thanks to a five-run second before Marcus Krupke squeezed in the game-winning run in the top of the ninth in a 4-3 game two victory.

After a disappointing split on Saturday, the Albion
College swept Olivet College, 6-3 and 14-0 on Sunday
afternoon. The Britons improve back to .500 at 7-7.
Albion athletics photo

Centre wrapped up its season series with the Millsaps Majors on Sunday. The Colonels soundly defeated the Majors 9-1 in the first game before falling 12-5 in the second game. Sunday's results marked the first conference series win for the Colonels this season. The Colonels lit up the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth in game one. By the time the rally was over, the Colonels had sent ten men to the plate and scored six runs on just four hits. In the nightcap, the Majors rallied against the Centre bullpen in the sixth, sending a dozen batters to the plate and scoring eight runs to take a commanding 11-5 lead. Millsaps would add an insurance run in the seventh to go up 12-5, where it would stay the rest of the way.

George Fox wrapped up its first road trip of 2021 with a win over Pacific Lutheran after a solid performance from freshman Ben Wills on the hill. The Bruins and Lutes traded scoreless half-innings for the first four frames as both teams' starting pitchers found their groove. In the top of the fifth, the Bruins were able to string together enough offense for the win. An error and a walk put Leon Johnson III and Travis Miller on base and a double into right field from Chase Fetzer plated both for a 2-0 lead. Wills worked one last scoreless frame in the sixth and Austin Hallman retired the side in the seventh with a backwards K and a double-play ball to seal the 2-0 win.

Mount Union rallied back for a 7-4 win in game one and dropped game two 11-1 at Otterbein in an Ohio Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader Sunday at Fishbaugh Field. The two teams split the four-game set leaving the Purple Raiders 7-3 overall and 5-3 in the OAC while Otterbein is now 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the OAC. Mount Union ran out to a 4-0 lead in game one and saw Otterbein came back with a three-run sixth and tied the game on a Zach Franz home run in the seventh. The Raiders then put on a rally of their own as they took advantage of an Otterbein error to plate two runs. Mount Union added insurance in the ninth as Eric Schilling led off the frame with a home run. On the mound, Ryan Osman went 6.0 innings in his second start while Jeremy Sassano allowed only one hit over the final three innings to pick up the win. Travis Burson took the loss out of the pen for Otterbein. In the nightcap, Mount Union was held to just four hits in an 11-1 loss in seven innings.

No. 13 Berry College improved to 24-4, over the weekend after a four-game sweep over the Hendrix College Warriors. The Vikings won 5-1 and 7-6 on Sunday. Game one would see Charles Stephenson get the start and the win at the mound, pitching seven innings, only giving up one run with two strikeouts. Berry would win the night cap in thrilling fashion. Tied 6-6, the game went to extra innings and Hendrix threatened with a walk off, but Jack Poist would make an incredible throw from left field to home plate to keep that from happening. Evan Romeo would then connect with a leadoff single, followed by a walk off single from Zach Walch to score Romeo, securing the 7-6 win. Ben Coker got the start in game one on Saturday, pitching all nine innings, striking out seven batters and giving up just two runs. During the outing, he became the new all-time leader in Berry College’s DIII era in strikeouts with 234.

After splitting a doubleheader on Saturday against Spalding University, No. 5 Webster rebounded on Sunday to sweep both ends of a doubleheader from the Golden Eagles at GCS Credit Union Ballpark and in turn take three of four games in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series from Spalding. In Sunday's doubleheader, the Gorloks opened the day with a 3-1 victory and then held on a 4-3 win in the nightcap. With the two wins, Webster improves to 13-3 overall and 9-1 in the SLIAC, while Spalding falls to 7-8 overall and 5-3 in the league. In Sunday's opener, second-year freshman Jordan Smevoll turned in a stellar start on the mound in the first game as he pitched six innings and allowed just five hits and one run, while walking three and striking out three to improve his record to 3-0 on the season. Freshman Alek Elges finished the game by retiring all three batters he faced in the seventh to earn his team-leading third save of the year. Meanwhile, in the nightcap, Webster got 4.2 strong innings from fourth-year junior Sean Beaver, who was making his second start of the 2021 season. In his second start, Beaver allowed just one hit and two unearned runs, while walking one and striking out seven. Beaver retired the first 12 Spalding hitters he faced in order, including striking out the side in the second inning.