The Gustavus baseball team used solid pitching and clutch hitting to pick up an important doubleheader sweep of Bethel by the scores of 4-1 and 4-3 on Saturday afternoon. Kellan Euerle pitched a complete game, three-hitter for the Gusties in the first game, while Taylor Fish pitched four shutout innings in relief of Connor Norris to pick up the win in the second game. Mike Holbrook’s single drove in Timmy Miller with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning in the second game. The Gusties are now 7-16 overall and 5-7 in the MIAC.
In the first game, the Royals took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but the Gusties countered with three runs in the second and one in third to take a 4-1 lead. That is all Euerle would need as he would not allow Bethel a hit in the final five innings of the game on his way to pitching a complete game and allowing only three hits. Gustavus pounded out six hits in the three-run second inning including Dave Tranvik’s double that drove in Mitch Johnson and Cody Sukalski. Holbrook drove in the third run with a single that scored Tranvik. Erik Sveen was 3-for-3 with a run scored.
In the second game, Bethel scored three runs in the top half of the third inning to take a 3-1 lead. Gustavus would score twice in the bottom of the sixth and then tally the gamewinner in the bottom of the seventh. The Gusties scored their two runs in the sixth on a sacrifice fly by Scott Benjamin and an RBI triple by Cody Sukalski and then Holbrook’s single scored Miller with the game-winner in the seventh. Taylor Fish turned in a strong pitching performance in relief as he limited Bethel to just two hits in four innings of work, while striking out three. Sveen went 2-for-3 with a run scored in game two to finish day 5-for-6 at the plate with two runs scored.