Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – Saint John's baseball handed league-leading Bethel its first conference losses of the season with a doubleheader sweep – 11-3 and 11-10 – on Wednesday, April 26, at Haugen Field at Becker Park.

The Johnnies (17-12, 8-4 MIAC) mashed to a .464 batting average – totaling 32 hits (32-for-69) – including .538 (14-for-26) with runners in scoring position. Ten of the hits were for extra bases: five doubles, a triple and four home runs.

SJU batted .552 (16-for-29) and drove in 15 of the day's 22 runs with two outs.

Bethel (20-6, 12-2 MIAC) entered the day with a 3.52 ERA and a .264 opponent batting average on the season.

Four Johnnies totaled a homer and four RBI each on the afternoon. Junior center fielder Jordan Amundson (Eden Prairie, Minn.) batted for the cycle in the doubleheader, going 6-for-8 with four runs scored, while senior second baseman Owen Dauk (Apple Valley, Minn./Eastview) went 4-for-7 with four runs scored. Dauk clobbered the go-ahead, three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning in game two. Senior first baseman Max Nyrop (Alameda, Calif.) and junior third baseman Joe Becker (New Prague, Minn.) collected three hits apiece.



SJU's starting catchers – seniors Matt Herold (North Oaks, Minn./Mounds View) and Zach Selchow (Apple Valley, Minn.) – both went 3-for-4 with two runs scored.

Game 1
Fueled by a pair of crooked innings, the home team jumped out to an 11-0 lead through the first four innings of game one. Five-consecutive Johnnies drove in a run en route to a six-run bottom of the second and SJU added four more runs, including a three-run bomb from Becker, in the third.

Junior Kody Dalen (Carver, Minn./Chanhassen) took care of the rest for SJU on the hill. He allowed the three runs, though all three were unearned, on three hits in 4.2 innings for the win (2-2 record). He struck out a career-high nine and walked two.

Senior Jack Haring (Ham Lake, Minn./Blaine) got out of the jam in the fifth inning with a strikeout and sophomore Connor Hartley (Inver Grove Heights, Minn./Rosemount) struck out two in two scoreless innings of relief.

Game 2
BU struck first in game two when a lazy flyball fell in no-man's land out in right with two outs to plate two runs in the top of the first inning. The Johnnies' bats stayed hot and totaled six runs on nine hits through the first two innings of BU's Max Sutter. Sutter started the game with a 4-0 record, 2.00 ERA and a .231 opponent batting average in 36 innings this spring, but SJU tagged him for six runs on 14 hits in five innings of work for the no-decision. 

Nyrop tied the game at 2-2 with a two-run blast, his fifth homer of the season and 23rd of his career, in the bottom of the first inning. The Johnnies then recorded four-consecutive hits with two outs in the bottom of the second to gain a 6-2 lead.

The Royals answered by scoring eight-straight runs (five earned) – a six-run third inning and two in the sixth – before SJU's five-run seventh.

Down 10-6, Amundson started the bottom of the seventh inning with a triple and scored on sophomore shortstop Jackson Peter's (Elrosa, Minn./Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa) RBI double on the next at-bat. He came around to score on junior designated hitter Owen Best's (Aurora, Colo./Regis Jesuit) RBI single. With two outs, Selchow kept the rally alive with a single and junior right fielder Rodney Erickson (St. Paul, Minn./Woodbury) reached on an error before Dauk cranked a 3-2 pitch deep to right field for the go-ahead home run.

Sophomore Kade Bowar (Burnsville, Minn.) picked up the win in relief (2-0 record) after he pitched the scoreless seventh and eighth innings. Freshman Evan Soeffker (Buffalo, Minn.) closed the game with a 1-2-3 ninth for his fourth save of the season.

The Johnnies play host to Gustavus Adolphus for Senior Day at 1 p.m. Saturday, April 29, in Collegeville.