Roseville, Minn. – The Crown baseball team earned a huge playoff victory on Thursday night, defeating Bethany Lutheran 9-6 to advance to the winners bracket of the double-elimination tournament.  Crown used a pair of two-run homers from Bailey Sarto and Aaron Clogston and ten strikeouts from the duo of Eric Newman and Jacob Van Dam to get past the Vikings. 

After a scoreless first inning, the Vikings took a 1-0 lead after the top of the second thanks to a one-out walk, stolen base, and RBI single.  Crown was unfazed, scoring twice in the bottom half on Clogston's blast and then proceeding to score every half inning until the seventh.

The Polars scored a single run in the third after Seth Betts was hit by a pitch and came around on a Kyle Schroedle double, added two in the fourth on Sarto's homer, and scored three times in the bottom of the fifth on a Jack Becker double, a Rhys Dewick double, and a Mason Brock RBI fielder's choice. 

Crown's last run came in the sixth when Betts hit a solo shot to left.

Crown's number one, Newman, threw six innings and left with a 9-4 advantage after giving up a leadoff single in the seventh.  The big right-hander had seven strikeouts and was charged with five runs.

Van Dam entered and quickly got two fly-ball outs before allowing a home run that cut the Crown lead to 9-6.

After getting out of the seventh, the sophomore right-hander walked the leadoff man in the eighth before striking out the next batter.  After a ground-rule double put the tying run at the plate, Van Dam made what turned out to be the play of the game.  Fielding a comebacker, Van Dam spun around and caught the runner at second in a run down.  Seth Betts ran him down and almost completed the double-play, throwing behind the runner scrambling back to first.

With two outs, the tying run was still at the plate, but Van Dam got a huge swinging strikeout to end the threat.

Van Dam came back out for the ninth and after the leadoff man reached on an error, got two more flyouts and finished things off with his third strikeout to send Crown through to the winner's bracket final tomorrow. 

Newman earned the win while Van Dam got the save for his nine outs to finish the game.  The offense was successful as a unit, with Schroedle's three hits and Sarto and Clogston's two RBI leading the way.  Betts and Dewick each scored twice to pace the Polars. 

Crown will play tomorrow at 4 p.m. against the winner of Northwestern and UW-Superior.  The tournament is double-elimination and the entire schedule can be found at umacathletics.com.