The Gustavus baseball team opened its MIAC season with a pair of losses to St. Olaf, 7-3 and 3-2, on Wednesday afternoon in Northfield, Minn. The Gusties struggled to drive in runs in game one, leaving 10 runners stranded in the game. St. Olaf’s Luke Peterson had the game winning RBI on a sacrifice fly in game two to give St. Oles the doubleheader sweep. Gustavus drops to 7-9 overall and 0-2 in the MIAC, as St. Olaf improves to 11-7 overall and 4-0 in the MIAC.
Alan Woitas was the losing pitcher in game one. He threw six innings and gave up seven runs on 11 hits. St. Olaf’s Erik Olson was the winning pitcher, throwing six and innings and giving up three runs on six hits.
Woitas had a rough start first inning, as the Oles tallied five hits and jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead. Gustavus got a one run in the fifth inning when Cody Sukalski drew a walk to bring Andrew Woitas around to score with the bases loaded. Gustavus scored two more runs in seventh on a Chad Eul home run, and Kyle Rains walk that brought one run in to score with the bases loaded. Cody Sukalski struck out to end the game, as Gustavus left the bases loaded in both the sixth and seventh innings.
Andrew Woitas had a good game at the plate, going 2-for-3 with one run. Gustavus was 6-for-27 as a team, while St. Olaf was 11-for-27.
In Game two, Sukalski got the loss, giving up just one earned run on three hits in six innings. St. Olaf’s Andrew Dzurak pitched six innings, giving up nine hits and two runs for the win.
Gustavus grabbed an early 1-0 lead after one inning on an RBI single by Herman that brought Alan Woitas around to score. The Oles answered in the bottom half of the inning with an RBI by Erik Nelson, tying the game at 1-1. Both teams scored unearned runs in the second inning, which made score 2-2 after two complete. An error by Herman in the fourth opened the door for the eventual game-winning RBI by Peterson. Ben Hughes came in for save in the top of the seventh, giving up a leadoff single to Alan Woitas, then retiring the Gusties in order for the save.
Both Alan Woitas and Tory Herman went 3-for-4 in game two. Gustavus was 10-for-30, as St. Olaf was 3-for-21.
The Gustavus baseball team will host Saint Mary’s in the home opening doubleheader on Saturday, April 10th, beginning at 1:00pm.