Morris, Minn. – The Crown baseball team was riding a nine-game winning streak heading into Wednesday's UMAC contest with Minnesota Morris, but was undone by a strong pitching performance from Morris and eventually fell to a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Crown hitters struck out 13 times against Morris's Jacob Schaaf who earned the complete game win on Wednesday. The Crown pitching staff was nearly equal to Schaaf, allowing only five hits in the game as each team had just a handful of hits in the game.
The Cougars got on the board quickly, using a pair of infield singles and a home run from their first three batters to jump out to a 3-0 lead.
Crown starter
Aidan Volk-Specht quickly settled down, getting through four innings without allowing another run as Crown scored three times to tie things up. An RBI groundout from Rhy Dewick and a two-run homer from
Seth Betts drew the two teams level at 3-3.
Volk-Specht got a bit unlucky in the fifth when a walk and an error turned into an RBI fielder's choice to give Morris the lead at 4-3.
Jacob Van Dam entered the game with runners on first and second and one out and promptly struck out the first batter he faced and then picked off the runner at second to get out of the jam.
The Crown sophomore would go on to spin three scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts and just one walk allowed to keep things close.
Crown would come from behind to tie the game again when senior
Bailey Sarto hit a solo shot to re-tie the score at 4-4 in the top of the seventh. Crown nearly took the lead, but a pickoff and a strikeout ended the threat.
Crown had a scare in the bottom of the eighth when a throwing error allowed the leadoff man to reach second base and a sacrifice fly moved the go-ahead run to third with just one out.
Tyler VanCise entered the game and got a lineout to second base and a huge strikeout to end that threat and keep the game tied.
After Crown was undone by an inning-ending double play in the top half of the ninth, the Cougars used a walk, hit batter, and bunt single to load the bases with nobody out. A single to right field by the next batter brought home the winning run as the Cougars prevailed 5-4.
The loss was a tough one to take considering the Cougars only had two hits that left the infield, but the silver lining is that Crown remains in first place in the UMAC by half a game over Northwestern with an 11-3 record.
After a single game at home against Northland on Thursday, the Storm have two massive three-game sets with Bethany Lutheran and UW-Superior, currently in third and fourth place in the standings. You won't want to miss a bit of the action as the 2022 season hurtles toward the postseason.
