Waconia, Minn. – Crown College baseball earned a split with Bethany Lutheran on Monday, after splitting with Northland the previous weekend.  The Storm used a tenth inning walk-off home run from Dalton Wintersole to win game one of the UMAC doubleheader, but couldn't carry that momentum into game two, eventually losing 10-5.

Game one against the Vikings was a thriller, going into extra innings after an emotionally fueled comeback by the Storm. 

Crown found themselves down 2-0 after two, and eventually 4-1 heading into the bottom of fifth.  That's when things got intense as Harry Ballantyne was hit by a pitch and Daryl Taylor followed that by also getting plunked, for the third time in the game. 

After some chatter between the two teams, Ballantyne and Taylor completed a double steal and then both scored when David Cruz hit a sac fly and the throw into the infield was misplayed allowing Taylor to cross the plate.

Crown evened things out at 4-4 with a run in the bottom of the seventh, but neither team could score again through nine innings.

Josh Flanders threw nine very strong innings for the Storm, allowing three earned runs on 11 hits with three strikeouts and no walks, while tossing 118 pitches.  Crown ran out JT Adams for the tenth, however, and it proved to be the right call, as the sophomore continued his excellent campaign by working around a couple of errors to shut down the Vikings while showing some hit and miss stuff.

That set up the dramatic finish as Wintersole took a 1-1 pitch over the right field wall for the walk-off win.

Adams earned his first collegiate victory in the game, while improving his ERA to a sparkling 0.79 over 10 appearances and 11.1 innings.

Wintersole and Gideon Dunn each had two hits to lead the offense, while Taylor was on base four times thanks in large part to his single-game record three hit by pitch.

Game two would feature a quick start by the Vikings who took advantage of 10 free passes to build a 7-3 lead through five innings. 

Crown was able to get a few back, but couldn't pull any closer as they fell 10-5.

Seth Herdle threw four solid innings in relief, allowing just one run and two hits over the four frames.

Dunn went 3-5 with a run scored and Ballantyne had two hits and two runs out of the leadoff spot.

Crown will continue their busy week by hosting Martin Luther in a conference doubleheader on Wednesday, before hosting North Central in a non-conference tilt that Friday that will also serve as Senior Night.  The team wraps up the 2016 campaign with a road trip to Duluth to take on St. Scholastica on Saturday.