INDEPENDENCE, Iowa – The St. Olaf College baseball team and Luther College played to their second consecutive split, as the Oles took game one, 12-5, before the Norse claimed a 15-3 win in the finale of the four-game set on Sunday afternoon at Independence High School.
St. Olaf (4-2) plated runs in five consecutive innings on its way to winning the opener before Luther (2-7) returned the favor by scoring in each of the first six innings in game two. The four-game split was the second in as many seasons for the Oles and Norse.
St. Olaf will return to Iowa for three games at Wartburg College next weekend, starting with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday, March 15.
St. Olaf 12, Luther 5 | Box Score
St. Olaf scored in five of its six innings at the plate, including four multi-run frames, on its way to a 12-5 victory in the opener. Junior Breckin Hadley broke a 3-3 tie with a fourth-inning grand slam to send the Oles on their way to the win.
All nine starting position players had at least one hit in the win for St. Olaf, led by two-hit games from senior Matthew Kulesa and junior Frank Lavin. A day after driving in six runs, Lavin was 2-for-3 with a walk, two runs scored, and two RBI.
Four pitchers worked in the game for the Oles, with sophomore Nick Levasseur earning the win with 1.1 innings of shutout relief of classmate Sam Hruska, who worked the first 3.2 innings. Sophomore Kieran Haaland and senior David Scheil also worked out of the bullpen, with Scheil striking out three in a scoreless seventh.
After Luther scored in the top of the first, St. Olaf grabbed its first lead of the game in the bottom of the second. Junior Christopher Woodside tied it up with a solo home run to center field before a wild pitch and an error led to the second run of the inning.
Lavin added to the Oles' lead with a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the third, but the Norse responded with two runs in the next half inning to tie the game at 3-3. Hadley delivered the big blow with a one-out grand slam in the bottom of the fourth after St. Olaf filled the bases on a single, a hit batter, and a walk.
St. Olaf took advantage of three walks to score twice more in the bottom of the fifth, with Kulesa knocking in two with a two-out single. Luther cut into its deficit with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to make it a 9-5 game, but the Oles put three on the board in the bottom of the inning to close out the scoring. Lavin added his second run-scoring single of the game and, later in the frame, senior Evan Hammonds plated two more with a single after coming to the plate with the bases loaded and one out.
Luther 15, St. Olaf 3 (7 inn.) | Box Score
St. Olaf took a 2-1 lead after one inning before Luther scored the next 14 runs by stringing together four multi-run innings. The Norse outhit the Oles by a 13-6 margin in the series finale and got home runs from three different hitters.
Lavin capped a 10-RBI weekend with a two-run double in the first inning for St. Olaf, which got its other run on a pinch-hit home run by first year Johnny Panarese in his first collegiate plate appearance in the seventh. Kaleb Thiesse limited the Oles to two runs on five hits with one walk and five strikeouts over 6.0 innings for Luther.
After the Norse got a run in the top of the first, St. Olaf grabbed a brief lead on a two-out, two-run double by Lavin in the bottom of the inning. Lavin's double came after St. Olaf filled the bases with two outs on two singles and a hit batter.
Luther went ahead on a two-run home run in the bottom of the second to begin a stretch where the Norse score 13 runs in a four-inning stretch. Panarese led off the bottom of the seventh with a solo shot to right field for the final run of the game.