St. Paul, Minn. - The Polars Baseball team took on the #1 seed in the UMAC tournament in Bethany Lutheran on Thursday and came out on top 2-1.
The first few innings went quickly as
Tristan Camp only gave up one hit through the first 4 innings. Crown's only hit came from
Ashton Long who was able to reach third but couldn't come around to score. In the top of the 5th inning Crown had
Bryan Gerbers reach on and error and a bloop single from
Tyler Bloom. With no outs
Matthew Shaugabay laid down a great bunt to third base and an overthrow of first base scored the first Polars run.Â
With two runners on and no outs
Ethan Habetler was hit by a pitch to load the bases. The Polars stranded three runners on base heading into the bottom of the 5th inning. After a two out single and an error two runners reached in the bottom of the 5th inning but Camp was able to evade the trouble as a fly ball to center ended the inning. A home run in the bottom of the 6th from the Vikings evened the score at 1-1.Â
After six innings on the mound Camp kept rolling setting the Vikings down in order to end the 7th inning. After two outs in the top of the 8th
Howie Hatton singled and
Rhys Dewick singled and advanced to second to put two runners in scoring position. Crown once again stranded two runners heading into the bottom half. After two outs in the bottom of the 8th inning Camp pulled out an excellent pickoff move to close out the inning.Â
Tyler Bloom singled in the 9th and had
William Hellard pinch ran for him. Hellard was able to steal second and reached third after a slow ground out. Once again Crown was knocking on the door but couldn't capitalize as they stranded the runner. Camp struck out one to start the 9th and after a walk Shaugabay gunned down the runner trying to steal second base and the score remained tied heading to extra innings.
A leadoff single from
Drew Girtz and a bunt from
Mason Brock saw two runners aboard in the 10th with no outs. A huge RBI base hit from
Ashton Long drove in the go ahead run as Crown took the 2-1 lead heading into the bottom of the 10th. After a leadoff hit from Bethany Lutheran,
Drew Girtz came in to pitch to close it down and proceeded to strike out the side to give the Polars the 2-1 victory.
Tristan Camp pitched 9 innings only allowing 1 earned run and struck out 8 batters. Girtz earned the save after striking out the side. Long and Bloom both had two hits on the day as Long had the lone RBI.
Crown will next take on UW-Superior tomorrow May 10th at 1pm in a battle to go to the UMAC Championship.
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