NORTHFIELD, Minn. – The St. Olaf College baseball team picked up its first sweep of Gustavus Adolphus College in 10 years with 1-0 and 9-7 victories over the Gusties on Tuesday afternoon at Mark Almli Field.

St. Olaf (22-9, 12-1 MIAC) equaled its best 13-game start to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play in program history with the two wins against Gustavus (15-14, 7-7 MIAC), while sweeping the Gusties for the first time since April 15, 2014. The Oles also recorded 12 wins in their first 13 MIAC contests in 1984, 1990, 1997, and 2007.

First year Cole Pleimann's second-inning home run accounted for all of the scoring in game one, as seniors Sam Lavin and Brock Brumley combined for a three-hit shutout. St. Olaf went on to complete the sweep by holding off the Gusties after the visitors cut a 7-2 deficit to 8-7 in the eighth inning.

The Oles will complete their halted game against Bethel University on Thursday, April 25 at 5 p.m. at Mark Almli Field. The game, which was started on Thursday, April 18 before being suspended due to darkness with St. Olaf up 15-6 after seven innings, was scheduled to be completed on Wednesday, April 24, but Bethel was unable to finish their second game at Augsburg University on Tuesday. Conference rules dictate that the current round of games has priority in being made up first.

St. Olaf 1, Gustavus 0 | Box Score

Pleimann gave Lavin and Brumley the only lead they would need with his first collegiate home run to lead off the second inning. Lavin struck out 11 batters – the second-highest total of his career and one shy of his career high – while limiting a Gustavus team that entered the day hitting .341 to three hits and two walks over 6.0 shutout innings. Brumley retired the Gusties in order in the seventh for his first of two saves on the day.

Pleimann was the lone batter on either team to tally multiple hits in the opener, which included just eight combined hits. In addition to the first year's 2-for-3 performance, junior Matthew Kulesa, sophomore Mason Buck, and sophomore Christopher Woodside had one hit apiece.

St. Olaf threatened to get on the board right away in the bottom of the first, putting runners on the corners with nobody out with a two-base error on a dropped fly ball and an infield single. Gustavus starter Mitch Casperson got out of the inning unscathed, however, by getting a line-drive double play to the first baseman and a fly out.

With the wind blowing out towards right field, Pleimann sent the third pitch of the bottom of the second over the fence the opposite way for his first-career home run. Lavin and Brumley took care of the rest, putting up seven zeroes despite Gustavus getting a runner on base in five of the seven innings.

The Gusties spurned a chance to tie the game in the top of the fourth by being unable to get a runner in from third base with nobody out. Gavin Baker led off the inning with a double and got to third on a wild pitch, but Lavin got three strikeouts in the inning to keep Gustavus off the board. The Gusties had two runners in scoring position with two outs after a walk and a wild pitch before Lavin's third strikeout of the inning.

After coming on when Casperson left the game after two-plus innings, Hunter Sheehan kept Gustavus in it with 4.0 innings of shutout ball, holding the Oles to two hits with one walk and five strikeouts. St. Olaf got back-to-back one-out singles from Pleimann and Buck in the fourth before a double play ended the threat.

Lavin struck out the side after a leadoff walk in the sixth before turning the ball over to Brumley, who sent the Gusties down in order in the seventh to complete the shutout. Three of St. Olaf's five shutouts this season have come in games started by Lavin.

St. Olaf 9, Gustavus 7 | Box Score

St. Olaf jumped out to an early 4-0 lead with four runs in the first inning and led 7-2 after two before Gustavus fought back. The Gusties got three runs in the third to get within two and were down just 8-7 after eight but could not complete the comeback.

Lavin and junior Evan Hammonds both recorded three-hit games for St. Olaf and combined for six of the Oles' nine hits in game two. Hammonds was 3-for-5 with a double and three runs scored, while Lavin was 3-for-4 with a walk, an RBI, and two runs scored. Pleimann drew four walks, while Buck drove in three runs.

After relieving sophomore Kevin Steel in the third, first year Kieran Haaland improved to 4-1 on the season by holding Gustavus to an unearned run on just one hit with one walk and five strikeouts over 4.1 innings out of the bullpen. Brumley allowed one run on three hits in a two-inning save for his fifth save of the season.

St. Olaf capitalized on three walks, a passed ball, two wild pitches, and an error by Gustavus in the bottom of the first to score four runs on just one hit. With the bases loaded and nobody out, the first run came in on a wild pitch before Buck and Woodside drove in runs with ground balls. A throwing error with two outs accounted for the final run of the inning.

Gustavus got two of the runs back in the top of the second, but the Oles answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the inning to open up a 7-2 advantage. After junior Jack Alley was hit by a pitch and Hammonds doubled to start the inning, Alley scored on a wild pitch. Lavin brought in Hammonds with a one-out single to right before Buck drove in another run via a fielder's choice.

The Gusties strung together three consecutive run-scoring hits with two outs in the top of the third to make it a 7-5 game. In the fourth, St. Olaf added a run on a double-play grounder off the bat of Lavin, but Gustavus got a run in the seventh and another in the eighth to get within one. With the Oles up 8-6 and runners on second and third with one out for Gustavus in the eighth, sophomore Frank Lavin made a running catch in deep right field for the second out on a sacrifice fly and Kulesa made sprawling catch in shallow right field to rob the game-tying hit and keep St. Olaf on top.

Buck drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the eighth to give the Oles an insurance run, although Gustavus kept its deficit at just two by getting the next two batters without further damage. The Gusties got the tying run to the plate twice after a leadoff single in the top of the ninth, but Brumley got a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.