NORTHFIELD, Minn. – After letting three leads get away in game two—including two in the late innings—the Carleton College baseball team dropped both games to visiting Gustavus Adolphus College on Saturday. The Gusties captured the opener 4-2 before rallying to nab an 8-7 result in game two.
The red-hot Gusties (13-1, 8-1 MIAC) pushed their win streak to 9 games, while the Knights (2-7, 0-7 MIAC) saw their modest win streak snapped.
GAME 1 RECAP
Carleton rookie
Kiefer Lord (Fy./Atherton, Calif./Menlo School) went the distance, collecting four strikeouts and limiting Gustavus to four runs, matching the Gusties' second-lowest scoring output of the campaign. The visitors scored twice in the first inning and two more times in the fourth.
Carleton plated its first run in the fifth inning thanks in part to singles by
Aaron Berkowitz (So./Leawood, Kan./Pembroke Hill School) and
Steve Antrim (Fy./Lake Bluff, Ill./Lake Forest) that preceded
Travis Brown's (Sr./St. Michael, Minn./St. Michael-Albertville) RBI groundout.
The Knights other tally came in the sixth inning as
Jacob Smith (Jr./McKinleyville, Calif./McKinleyville) doubled and raced home on
James Sassi's (Jr./Stamford, Conn./Brunswick School) single to left field.
GAME 2 RECAP
Gustavus entered the game with a team ERA of only 1.82, but the Knights put a dent into that figure by scoring seven times, the second-highest total surrendered by the Gusties this season.
The Knights jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Brown singled and later scored on a base hit by
Luke Mager (So./Berkeley, Calif./Berkeley).
Brayden Stark (Fy./Los Angeles, Calif./The Buckley School) followed with his first collegiate home run, a two-run shot over the left-field wall.
After the visitors knotted the score at 3-3 in the top of the fourth, Carleton responded with three more tallies in the bottom of that frame. Brown had an RBI single,
Alec Kotler (Jr./Chicago, Ill./Latin School of Chicago) drew a bases-loaded walk, and Antrim raced home on a wild pitch.
The Gusties scored twice in the sixth and tied the contest at 6-6 with an unearned run in the seventh.
In the bottom of the eighth, Brown walked and scored on Smith's second double of the day, pushing Carleton back ahead at 7-6. In the ninth inning, the Gusties got a two-out RBI double by pinch hitter Nathan Lindberg followed by throwing error that allowed the go-ahead run to cross the plate.
Carleton got the tying run aboard in the bottom of the ninth but could not scratch out a run.
UP NEXT FOR THE KNIGHTS
Carleton wraps up its three-game weekend series against the Gusties with a 9-inning contest in St. Peter, Minn. on Sunday, April 18. First pitch is slated for 1:00 p.m.
