Mankato, Minn. - The Polars baseball team faced off with UM-Morris and Northwestern on Friday in elimination games and came out on top 6-1 and 20-0.
Crown jumped out to a 3-0 in game one of the day and didn't look back as
Ashton Long hit two home runs and totaled 3 RBI's.
Ryan Vondracek pitched a complete game allowing just 1 earned run and scattering 7 hits across all 9 innings of work on the mound.
Bryan Gerbers and
Drew Girtz had multi hit games leading the Crown offense as the Polars took down the Cougars 6-1.
Game two was a similar story as Crown piled on the scoring early. After a grand slam from
Julian Encinas Crown led 5-0 after the first inning of play. A two RBI single from Gerbers, two run home run from
Tyler Bloom, and a
Caleb Yowell double put Crown ahead 10-0.
Kyler Thruston later homered in the game as Crown pulled away 20-0 earning the win and punching their ticket to championship Saturday.
Aidan Volk-Specht earned the win in 4 innings pitched allowing just 1 hit and no earned runs.
John Brew and
Michael Escalante finished the game on the mound. Crown had three players with 4 RBI's and three others with multiple runs batted in.
The story of the day was the Polars bats coming alive and pitching shutting down both opponents on the day. Crown moves to 23-17 on the season as the Polars will now take on Bethany Lutheran College at 1pm tomorrow. Crown will need to beat the Vikings twice to win the tournament and earn the 2025 bid to the NCAA regional the following week.
