St. Bonifacius, MN – Crown battled with Bethany Lutheran in a pivotal three game series on Saturday and Sunday as the Vikings took two of the three games. Offense was the story of the weekend as 62 combined runs were scored during the three-game series.
 
Game one on Saturday afternoon saw Crown jump ahead early on a Kyle Schroedle two run bomb to left field as Crown would never trail in game one. In the third inning Alejandro Molina drove in two with a double to right field. In the fourth the Storm manufactured offense via the walk, drawing two bases loaded walks to drive in runs. In the sixth Tristan Shoemaker hit a home run to left field to extend the lead to 12-3. Crown scored three runs each in the third, fourth, and fifth innings.
 
Bethany would make a charge in the late innings, but Crown would hang on for a 14-8 win. Eric Newman was great on the mound in game one, pitching six strong innings, giving up only three runs and striking out seven.
 
Game two was played in tough conditions, it rained for most of the game that was close throughout before Bethany pulled away in the late innings.
 
Crown got the scoring started with a leadoff home run from Mason Brock to give Crown an early 1-0 lead. Bethany would respond with four runs of their own in the top half of the third inning in what was a back-and-forth affair.
 
Crown would tie the game in the bottom of the fifth on a rally that saw RBIs from Jack Becker and Seth Betts. In the bottom of the sixth Crown would regain the lead on a Kyle Schroedle home run and then extended the lead to 6-4 on a Cody Csulak RBI single.
 
Unfortunately for Crown, those were the last runs they scored as Bethany would take the lead in the top of the seventh by tacking on four runs to take an 8-6 lead. They would add on four more runs in the top of the eighth to take a 12-6 lead in what would end up being the final score.
 
Game three was actually played up in Mankato on Sunday with Crown still playing as the home team. The game got away from the Storm early as the Vikings scored four times in the first inning and then six more times in the fourth to take a 10-0 lead.
 
Crown's offense would respond for six runs in the seventh on a Seth Betts grand slam and a Bailey Sarto two run shot to cut the lead in half at 12-6. Each team would tack a couple more runs on in the eighth and ninth innings for a final score of 14-8.
 
Crown now sits at 20-12 on the year and 13-5 in the UMAC as we enter the final stretch of the regular season, this puts Crown a game behind Northwestern in the UMAC standings with a week to play. The team will travel to Gustavus on Wednesday for a non-conference matchup with the Gusties before taking on UW-Superior Friday and Saturday in a crucial three game series to wrap up UMAC play.