Release courtesy of Matt Higgins, MIAC Assistant Executive Director
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – The Gustavus baseball team swept a pair of MIAC doubleheaders against the last two conference champions to push its winning streak to six in a row. Senior pitcher Jacob Volness (Cokato, Minn./Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted) came up big on the mound to earn a win in each series, as he went 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA, with just two earned runs allowed in 10 innings on five hits and two walks with five strikeouts. For his performance the MIAC sports information directors honored Volness Monday with the final MIAC Baseball Pitcher-of-the-Week award of the season.
Volness began his week with a gem in his final career MIAC start. He threw a two-hit complete game to lead Gustavus to a 5-2 win over 2015 MIAC champ Bethel, with just one earned run allowed and one walk. He struck out three, and faced just five batters more than the minimum. Saturday, he came out of the bullpen to earn another win, as the Gusties rallied to beat 2016 MIAC champ St. Thomas for the first time in eight tries, and for the first time at UST in nine years. Volness worked the final three innings of the 6-5 comeback win, allowing one run on three hits with one walk and two Ks.
This season, Volness is 5-3 overall and 4-1 in MIAC play. His 3.26 ERA is ranked sixth in the MIAC and he’s second in innings pitched (66.1), third in complete games (three), sixth in wins (five), and eighth in strikeouts (45). Thanks to last week’s sweeps, Gustavus moved above the .500 mark at 20-18 overall, and finished the conference season 9-11, tied with Augsburg and Bethel for sixth place in the MIAC standings. Tuesday, Volness and company will wrap up the team’s 2016 season – the second under Head Coach Brad Baker – with a 1 p.m. nonconference doubleheader at UW-Superior.