St. Paul, MN - Crown entered the day needing a win to advance to championship Saturday, they got it in the night cap against Northwestern and will advance to Saturday, where they will face UW-Superior, needing two wins to secure the program's first UMAC Tournament title.
The first game on Friday came against the Yellowjackets where not much worked in Crown's favor. The Polars would take the lead early in the top of the first on a
Seth Betts RBI single to right center.
That would unfortunately be all the offense Crown could muster until the bottom of the ninth inning when they scored two runs on a
Tristan Shoemaker RBI single to make it a 9-3 game which would end up being the final.
Walks were an issue for Crown in this one as they walked twelve Yellowjackets in a game where they trailed by as much as 9-1.
Fortunately for Crown however, they didn't let their second life they receive in this double elimination format go to waste on Saturday night. The Polars dominated the Northwestern Eagles in an elimination game by a score of 7-1.
Kyle Schroedle got the scoring started for the Polars in the 3rd inning on a double to left center, scoring
Seth Betts and
Blake Boggs to put Crown ahead 2-0.
Both offenses would go stagnant until the seventh when Crown really broke the game open. The scoring started with a
Bailey Sarto single down the right field line scoring
Aaron Clogston.
Seth Betts then followed that up with another single, scoring two to increase the lead to 5-0. Later that inning
Alejandro Molina singled up the middle, driving in Sarto. The scoring was capped in the seventh on a Clogston bases loaded walk to drive in the Polars seventh run of the evening.
The star of the night however was starting pitcher
Aidan Volk-Specht. The southpaw pitched an absolute gem, going all nine innings for the Polars when they needed it the most, striking out eight, walking only one, and giving up just one run in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs. Volk-Specht kept Northwestern off balance all night long, only giving up four hits. For a Northwestern offense that has been really good all year, the Eagles never really threatened to score until the bottom of the ninth when they game was already well in hand, just a fantastic performance from the sophomore.
Crown now advances to Saturday, where they will have to beat UW-Superior twice to win the UMAC title. First pitch is at 1:00 PM from Reynolds field and if the Polars win game one, game two will be at approximately 4:00 PM but that is subject to change depending on the length of game one.
