The Gustavus baseball team was swept by Saint Mary’s 3-9, 4-6 on Thursday afternoon in Winona, Minnesota. The Gusties struggled both at the plate and in the field in the disappointing losses to the Cardinals. Coach Mike Carroll’s squad, which falls to 8-10 overall and 2-2 in the MIAC, managed only 12 hits in 52 at-bats (.230) in the doubleheader, while committing four errors.
In game one, The Cardinals scored three runs in each of the first two innings to jump out to a 6-0 lead. Saint Mary’s extended its lead to 9-0 before the Gusties rallied to score three times in the top of the sixth inning. Travis Gunderson got the big hit for Gustavus as he drove in two runs with a two-out single. Six different players recorded a hit for the Gusties. Rickey Sabo picked up the loss on the mound as he allowed five earned runs in one and two-thirds inning of work. Neil Petrash and David Wold also pitched for the Gusties.
In game two, the score was tied 1-1 through two innings, but the Gusties committed two errors that led to two unearned runs in the third and then two more errors in the fourth that led to three unearned runs. Trailing 6-1, Gustavus manufactured three runs in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 6-4. Two of the Gusties three runs were a result of a walk and a hit batsmen with the bases loaded. Ben Sherer drove in Tony Konicek with a single to score the third run.
Gustavus had two runners on with no outs in both the sixth and seventh innings but were unable to come up with the big hit to score any more runs. Ben Sherer was the Gusties leading hitter with two hits in three at-bats with one rbi. Josh Spitzack, who allowed seven hits and three earned runs in five innings, was tagged with the loss.
The Gusties play their home opener on Saturday against Concordia in another important MIAC matchup. The doubleheader will start at 1:00 pm.