ROSEVILLE, Minn. --- Crown Baseball had their second straight sweep on Wednesday, in an early morning set of games with the Martin Luther Knights. The Storm eased through the first game, winning 13-4 after a seven-run fourth inning broke the game wide open. They followed up that win with another victory behind the stellar pitching performance of
Sydney Ness, winning the game 5-2.
In the first game, Crown fell down 0-2 through the middle of the fourth inning. However, the Storm scored seven runs in the next half-inning to take a five-run lead. It started when
Bailey Sarto found home plate on a wild pitch that bounced before the plate over the catcher's head. Next, first-year
Alex Sugi hit a single to score
Gideon Dunn. Following that, Storm catcher
Dylan O'Neil hit a single to score
Kress Medina, and then, after
Matt Sanchez walked to load the bases,
Seth Betts delivered his second career home run for a grand slam. After the Knights came back with another run, the Storm extended their lead with three more runs in both the fifth and sixth innings. In the sixth,
Dylan O'Neil doubled to score
Hunter Orozco, and both Betts and
Camden Wiens had sacrifice outs to right field, recording RBIs (scoring
Derek Albers and Sugi respectively).
Junior pitcher
Eric Newman received the first start of the day for the Storm, striking out eight and allowing two runs in four innings. He had only two hits against him, though he did walk six Knight batters. He picked up his second straight win, after he defeated D'Youville during Crown's spring break Florida road trip. First-year pitcher
Nick Brock followed Newman, pitching 1.2 innings of relief with one earned run and striking out three. Fellow first-year
Chris Young followed Brock, pitching one inning, completing the third out in the sixth inning and the first two of the seventh. He allowed one run and struck out one in his second game of action this season. Lastly,
Jevon Tompkins pitched the last out of the game, striking out Martin Luther's last batter as the Storm completed the win.
In a lower scoring second game, it was sophomore
Sydney Ness who pitched a complete game, striking out two and allowing only two hits in the contest. He was credited with his second win of the season, after throwing a three-hitter in a victory against D'Youville in his last action.
The Storm fell behind 0-1 in the second inning but came back with two runs in the fourth inning as Sugi and
Kyle Schroedle both had RBI fielder's choices. In the fifth inning, Sarto hit an RBI single to score
Levi Knott and
Gideon Dunn hit a triple to score Sarto. Medina followed that up with a single that scored
Derek Albers (pinch running for Dunn.) Dunn's triple was his fourth career triple and his first since his sophomore season.
Crown improves to 7-8, already surpassing their win total from their previous season. The Storm next play against Carleton College on Tuesday next week, tentatively scheduled for Highland Park in Watertown, Minn. Keep in the loop by following Crown Athletics at
@stormathletics on Twitter.
