MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – The St. Olaf College baseball team made it back-to-back sweeps to open Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play with 6-3 and 13-1 road victories over Augsburg University on Thursday at Parade Stadium.

After a slow start offensively in game one, St. Olaf (13-8, 4-0 MIAC) tallied 19 runs on 29 hits to sweep Augsburg (3-13, 0-4 MIAC) for the fourth time in five doubleheaders dating back to 2019. Coupled with Tuesday's sweep of Concordia-Moorhead, the wins gave the Oles their first 4-0 start in conference play since 2019.

Junior Evan Hammonds was 6-for-10 with a double, two runs scored, a stolen base and five RBI on the day to help St. Olaf hit .382 (29-for-76) in the twin bill. The Oles were 20-for-48 (.417) with runners on base in the two wins. St. Olaf's pitching staff allowed just two earned runs over 16.0 innings to post a 1.12 ERA and has yielded just 15 runs over the team's last eight games.

The Oles host the College of St. Scholastica for a doubleheader on Tuesday, April 9 in a 2:30 p.m. start at Mark Almli Field.

St. Olaf 6, Augsburg 3 | Box Score

After being shut out over the first four innings, St. Olaf scored four runs in the fifth and twice in the sixth to overcome a 2-0 deficit and take game one. Hammonds and classmate Matthew Kulesa had three hits apiece to combine for six of the Oles' 12 hits in the win.

Hammonds was 3-for-4 with a run scored and two RBI, while Kulesa was 3-for-4 and scored once in his first three-hit game of the season. Senior Sam Lavin and first year Cole Pleimann were both 2-for-4 with an RBI, with Lavin also scoring a run.

First year Kieran Haaland, first year Sam Hruska, and senior Brock Brumley combined to limit Augsburg to one earned run in the game. Haaland yielded one run on five hits over 3.0 innings in his first collegiate start before giving way to Hruska, who improved to 2-0 after allowing an unearned run on two hits in the fourth. Brumley earned his second save of the season by throwing the final 3.0 innings, giving up an unearned run on one hit with a walk and three strikeouts.

In the first four appearances of his collegiate career, Hruska has yet to allow an earned run, while Haaland has given up just two earned runs through his first 18.0 innings of work for a 1.00 ERA. The unearned run Augsburg got off Brumley was just the third run the senior has given up in 15.0 innings, with one run of the three being earned (0.60 ERA).

Augsburg took a 2-0 lead through four innings with single runs in the first and fourth, as St. Olaf left six runners on base over the first four frames. Down by two, the Oles tallied four runs in the top of the fifth, benefiting from a pair of errors by the Auggies in the inning. With runners on first and third and nobody out, Lavin doubled to right to plate younger brother Frank Lavin and leave two runners in scoring position. An error on a fielder's choice off the bat of sophomore Breckin Hadley allowed two runs to score before Pleimann capped the inning with a run-scoring single to right.

The Auggies got one of the runs back in the bottom of the fifth to make it a one-run game, but the Oles put two runs on the board in the top of the sixth for the final runs of the game. After sophomore Brendan Goldman and Kulesa got on to start the inning, Hammonds singled down the left-field line with one out to bring both runners in and give Brumley a three-run cushion. Brumley retired the final seven Augsburg batters of the game to finish off his fifth save as an Ole.

St. Olaf 13, Augsburg 1 | Box Score

After Augsburg got a run in the first inning, St. Olaf scored 13 unanswered runs in game two, plating at least one run in seven of its nine innings at the plate. Junior Jacob Fickenscher and first year Nick Levasseur combined to limit the Auggies to one run on eight hits with one walk and six strikeouts in the win.

Fickenscher registered his first win of the season by working a season-high 5.0 innings for the Oles, giving up just one run on seven hits with no walks and three strikeouts. Levasseur collected his first collegiate save after holding the Auggies to one hit and one walk over 4.0 shutout innings of relief with three strikeouts.

Sophomore Frank Lavin led St. Olaf's 17-hit outburst by going 4-for-5 with three doubles, three RBI, and four runs scored in the first four-hit game of his career. Hammonds was 3-for-6 with a double, a stolen base, a run scored, and three RBI, while Goldman went 3-for-5 with a run scored and an RBI. Kulesa matched Lavin with four runs scored in the win.

The Auggies got a pair of two-out hits to push across a run in the bottom of the first, but the Oles responded with a two-out rally of their own in the next half inning. With two out and two on, Frank Lavin tied the game with an RBI single to center and Hammonds followed with a two-run single to right to give St. Olaf the lead.

Kulesa and Goldman drove in runs in the third and fourth innings with two-out hits to push the Oles' lead to 5-1. Junior Jack Alley knocked in runs with a sacrifice fly in the fifth and a two-out double in the seventh to make it a 7-1 game before St. Olaf scored twice in the eighth and four times in the ninth to break the game wide open.

Hammonds capped his five-RBI day with a run-scoring double in the eighth. In the ninth, Frank Lavin finished off his four-hit game with a two-run double and senior Brian Nevin added a pinch-hit two-run double of his own three batters later.