ST. PAUL — After losing their first meeting in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference baseball tournament on Friday, Crown had to beat Wisconsin-Superior twice on Saturday, May 14 to earn the title, and that's exactly what they did.
Crown booked a berth in the NCAA tournament by sweeping the two championship games, 13-5 and 7-2.
UWS scored first in the first championship game getting a two-run double from Isaac Fugere and a sacrifice fly from Sam McNosky, but Crown scored the game's next seven runs, and after UWS cut the deficit in half in the bottom of the fifth, closed the game out with a six-run seventh inning.
Crown leadoff man Mason Brock was 4-for-6 with a pair of doubles. Jacob Van Dam earned the win, pitching 4 2/3 innings of scoreless relief.
For UWS, Matt Tappe took the loss, allowing 11 earned runs on 10 hits. Nick Fredrikson and Ben Rhodes had two hits apiece.
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In Game 2, Crown scored three in the top of the first and never trailed, holding UWS to six hits. An RBI single from Payton Steiner in the bottom of the first and an RBI groundout in the third from Ryan Castaneda made it 3-2, but Crown scored insurance runs in the fourth, fifth and seventh innings to earn the UMAC's NCAA tournament berth the hard way.
Four Crown players had two hits apiece, while starter Eric Newman went the distance and struck out 15, allowing two runs (one earned) on six hits with three walks. Ryan Rodriguez took the loss, allowing three earned runs on five hits in two innings. Steiner, who was 2-for-3 with a double, was the only Yellowjacket with multiple hits.
UWS ends its season with a 19-21 record.
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