ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – The St. Olaf College baseball team secured its first berth in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoffs in 10 seasons by picking up a road sweep of Bethel University by scores of 14-5 and 10-2 on Wednesday afternoon at Hargis Park.

St. Olaf (23-12, 12-6 MIAC) entered the day knowing a sweep would be enough to clinch its first postseason berth since 2009 and used a 31-hit, 24-run afternoon to sweep Bethel (19-15, 8-10 MIAC). The Oles remain in the hunt for a MIAC regular-season title, as St. Olaf is tied for second with Saint John's (27-10, 12-6 MIAC), one game behind MIAC leader Gustavus (22-10, 13-5 MIAC), who the Oles face on the road on Saturday.

The four-team field for the MIAC Playoffs is set after Saint John's split with Macalester and Saint Mary's (20-16, 12-8 MIAC) split with Gustavus on Wednesday. The Cardinals are finished with their conference slate, while the Johnnies close with two against Hamline at home.

St. Olaf 14, Bethel 5 | Box Score

Junior Tommy McDonald led the way in the opener for St. Olaf, going 5-for-5 with four runs and one RBI, while junior Dylan Blake was 4-for-5 with two runs and three RBI. All nine starting position players had at least one hit, eight scored and seven drove in at least one run for the Oles.

Junior Hanson Devine picked up his second victory of the season by tossing five innings before classmate Luke Feigal closed out the final two frames.

St. Olaf used six-straight two-out hits to score five runs in the top of the second. Junior Sam Pressman started the scoring with a two-run home run, his first of the season, to right field before five-straight singles led to three more runs. McDonald, Blake and sophomore Matthew Muller had RBI singles in the inning.

After Bethel got a run in the second, the Oles scored five more times in the fourth to go ahead, 10-1. Back-to-back walks and a single by McDonald to start the inning filled the bases, chasing Bethel starter Marcus Krupke. Blake greeted Matthew Bohlke with a RBI single, but Bohlke rebounded with back-to-back strikeouts, before junior Ryan Torbenson cleared the bases with a two-out, three-run double to deep center.

The Oles tacked on three more runs in the fifth on singles by Muller, Dahl and first year Andrew Nomoto. The Royals got those three runs back in the home half of the inning. Blake knocked in St. Olaf's final run of the game with a single after McDonald doubled to start the sixth.

St. Olaf 10, Bethel 2 | Box Score

In the nightcap, St. Olaf scored 10 runs in the first three innings and juniors Max Marshall and Elliot Syverson held Bethel to two runs to pitch the Oles to their fourth MIAC sweep of the season.

Marshall won his second-straight start, working six innings for the second time in less than a week, yielding two runs (one earned) on eight hits. Syverson earned his fifth save with three strikeouts in three hitless innings.

Sophomore TJ Rogers was one of five Oles with multiple hits, going 3-for-5 with a walk and two runs scored. Senior Jake Ossell reached base four times, going 2-for-3 with two walks, two runs and two RBI, while Blake, Muller and senior Luke Dahl had two hits apiece.

St. Olaf took advantage of three early Bethel errors to score twice in the first and twice in the second. Nomoto delivered a run-scoring single in the two-run first, while Blake had one in the second to stake the Oles to a quick 4-0 lead.

The Oles blew the game open with six runs in the third to go ahead, 10-0, scoring all six runs with two outs. With the bases loaded and two away, Ossell knocked a two-run single through the left side to make it 6-0. Three more runs scored on an error by the Bethel left fielder and Blake capped the inning with an RBI double down the left-field line.

The Royals got on the board in the bottom of a third on a sacrifice fly and added an unearned run in the seventh. Syverson entered the game with runners on second and third and nobody out in the bottom of the seventh, retiring the first two batters before an error gave Bethel its second run.

The Oles close out MIAC play at Gustavus on Saturday, May 4 with first pitch at 1 p.m.