SAINT PAUL, Minn. – The Gustavus baseball team earned a conference sweep over Macalester on Saturday afternoon, squeaking by with a 2-1 win in game one going into extras and a 14-3 performance in game two. With the wins the Gusties improve to 14-4 overall and 2-1 in the MIAC.
Ethan Mocchi (Sr., Champlin) gave the Gusties an early lead in the first inning with a single up the middle to score Bryce Novak (Jr., Cleveland) for a 1-0 edge. Both teams played tight defense with just one hit in the second inning.
In the bottom of the third, the Scots evened the scoreboard to 1-1 where it remained through the seventh inning.
After a walk and two steals, Connor Wiberg (Fy., Eagan) was in scoring position but the Gusties could not get past a locked-in Scots pitching staff.
Damon Rademacher (Sr., Princeton) entered in the bottom of the seventh and struck out the first Scot batter before two more outs to send the game to an eighth inning.
In the top of the eighth, Drake Siens (So., Rogers) led off with a double to left center before Nick Azar (Sr., Edina) singled to right field as Siens ran home off of a wild pitch to seal the win.
Macalester made a pitching change to keep Gustavus limited to the one run in the eighth. Radamecher earned the win, pitching two innings with zero hits and a pair of strikeouts.
Gustavus found its stride and had a more dominant performance in the second game of the day.
Mocchi continued to be consistent for the Gusties in game two with a single down the left field line to score Jack Hanson (Sr., Minnetonka) for an opening run before Dalton Thelen (Sr., Cold Spring) extended the lead with a single to bring in Mocchi. A hard-hit double up the middle from Logan Bjorkman (Jr., Lindstrom) plated three more Gustie runs for an explosive 5-0 lead heading into the bottom of the first.
Mocchi added a pair of RBI’s off a single in the second inning before the Scots answered back with three runs to cut into the deficit.
In the top of the third, Thelen stole third before plating the eighth Gustie run off of a throwing error from the Macalester catcher.
Gavin Baker (Jr., Lakeville) kept the Gusties trucking with a double to right center scoring Hanson before Mocchi kept his bat hot with a single to right field scoring Baker. A Thelen sac-fly scored Mocchi to make it an 11-3 game.
The Gusties plated three more runs in the 14-13 final. Mocchi ended the day going 3-for-4 with five RBI and two runs while Andrew Gustafson (Jr., Maplewood) took the victory on the rubber pitching 4.1 innings, striking out five batters, and only allowing one hit.
Gustavus returns home on Sunday to continue conference play with a doubleheader against Carleton beginning at 1:00.