ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – The Carleton College baseball team dropped a pair of extra-inning heartbreakers against Bethel University, 3-2 in eight innings and 3-1 in nine frames.
Game 1 — Bethel 3, Carleton 2 (8 inn.)
Carleton once again had a home game moved to a new park, as Mel Taube Field was not playable after heavy precipitation earlier in the week. The Knights (6-8, 0-4 MIAC) would once again play these contests as the home team.
The matinee game was an old-fashioned pitcher's duel, with Carleton's
Will Schnepf and Bethel's (14-6, 5-1 MIAC) Max Sutter trading zeroes for the opening three innings. The two righties got it done in different ways, as Schnepf was around the zone a bit and artfully escaped jams, while Sutter peppered the plate and cruised until the fourth.
In that inning,
Aaron Rice hooked a double down the left-field line and was moved over by a groundout. He raced home on
Jordan Appelbaum's sacrifice fly, giving Carleton a short-lived lead.
Bethel responded in the next half-inning with a leadoff single and RBI double from Oran Hinkle, who advanced to third on the throw. With no outs and a runner on third, Schnepf procured three clutch outs to keep the game tied. The junior was removed after 6.0 innings, and
Mark Fernandez stranded a pair of runners in the top of the seventh, and the Knights were unable to push across a run in the bottom half of the inning as the game headed to extra innings.
A leadoff base knock and back-to-back doubles gave the Royals two runs in the top of the eighth.
Ananth Iyer singled and would come around to score three batters later on a fielder's choice, but the Knights came up short after catcher Chris Lavin threw out a runner at second to end the game.
Rice went 2-for-3 with a run and a pair of doubles. Schnepf finished his day with 6.0 innings pitched, five hits scattered, and just one run allowed. That run snapped a streak of 18.0 scoreless innings for the Texan to start his season.
Game 2 — Bethel 3, Carleton 1 (9 inn.)
The two squads exchanged tallies in the first. Bethel took advantage of a pair of walks to plate a run. In the bottom of the stanza,
Sam Zacks reached on a hit-by-pitch, moved to third on a
Sam Gossard hit-and-run single, and scored on a double play groundout. That seemed to portend more offense than game one, but it was not to be as hurlers Roman Lachenmayer and
Jack Curtis bore down the rest of their outings. After a shaky start, Curtis retired 15 consecutive batters from the second through the sixth innings.
The nightcap became a seven-inning affair after the first game needed eight innings, so once again the two squads went into extras tied 1-1. Bethel stranded the bases loaded in the eighth and Carleton couldn't finish the game off. In the ninth, Lavin hit a leadoff double, was bunted over, and scored on a fly-ball error. That runner would come around as well, and the Knights could only muster one hit in the bottom of the ninth. Four of Carleton's losses this spring have come in the opposition's final at-bat.
Schnepf took to the plate and had two knocks, both doubles. Curtis authored 6.0 innings of two-hit, one-run ball, striking out four. All except the run total were career bests.
Up Next for the Knights
A rescheduled twin bill against Saint John's University is expected to be played this upcoming week at a time to be determined. Carleton will then hit the road for two games at College of St. Scholastica on Saturday, April 12.
