WATERTOWN, Minn. – Northwestern College won its fifth and sixth consecutive Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) baseball games on Tuesday with a doubleheader sweep of Crown College. A nine-run seventh inning gave NWC an 18-6 victory in Game 1 before early runs in the second game led to a 7-3 win.

Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score

Down 2-0 in the third inning, Northwestern teed off for five runs as the Eagles took advantage of three hits and three Storm errors. Taylor McMurray (Vadnais Heights, Minn./Totino-Grace), Cody Durkee (Wilton, N.D./Wilton) and Andy Peterson (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) all picked up RBI in the frame as just one of the runs that came across was earned. NWC added to its run total in the fourth, as three more hits led to the same amount of scores. A Durkee double brought in two of those runs before the senior scored thanks to a single from Cody Kielsa (Howard Lake, Minn./Rogers) to give the Eagles an 8-2 advantage.

Crown matched Northwestern's fourth inning output with a three-run fifth inning as Eagles pitcher Matt Doss (Pillager, Minn./Pillager) found himself in a bit of a jam. The Purple and Gold's bats picked up the freshman though. After each team added a run in the sixth frame, Northwestern hosted a one-inning scoring party in the top of the seventh when five Eagle players saw the batter's box on two separate occasions. McMurray, Kielsa and Bryan McCallum (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) all picked up RBIs in the inning, with McCallum's coming off of a double that brought home Taylor Kauweloa (Kailua, Hawaii/Damien Memorial).

Zach Markwith (Honolulu, Hawaii/St. Louis), who claimed Northwestern's career hits record over the weekend, also grabbed an RBI to go with his three hits in the game. Durkee and McCallum rounded out the senior trio that all contributed three hits to the Eagles' 17 as a team.

Doss earned credit for the win from the mound, with Connor Olson (Mahtomedi, Minn/Mahtomedi) finishing out the sixth and seventh innings.

The second game of the day offered a rare statistic in that eight of the 10 runs that were scored from both Northwestern and Crown went into the book as being unearned as the Eagles won 7-3. All seven of NWC's runs came in the first and third frames.

Northwestern posted just one hit in the first inning – from Markwith, yet an error and several free bases allowed the Eagles to score four runs. Kielsa earned an RBI on his sacrifice fly to right field, bringing McMurray home in the process.

Crown answered back with two runs in the top of the third as the Storm took the role of the visitors on the scoreboard for the day's second game. Northwestern put up a three-spot in the bottom half of the inning. Peterson scored an unearned run, moving about the bases following a leadoff walk while Lance Lebaron (Anoka, Minn./Anoka) crossed home plate after a Storm error. With McMurray on third, Durkee singled down the right field line to earn his fourth RBI of the day.

Crown snuck a run across in the fifth, but both teams went scoreless after that as the Eagles hung on to their four-run lead.

Four players saw time on the hill for Northwestern including Jonathon Ellis (Farmington, Minn./Farmington), who allowed three hits over five innings to earn the victory. Drew Tennyson (Stuartevant, Wis./Christian Life) yielded just one hit throughout the sixth, seventh and eighth frames before Drew Stein (Circle Pines, Minn./Centennial) and Peterson finished business in the ninth.

Now 11-12 overall, the Eagles boosted their UMAC record to 6-2 following Tuesday's wins. Northwestern will take a short breather from games before playing a baseball marathon this weekend. NWC is scheduled to host Bethany Lutheran University in a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Friday and a 12 p.m. twin bill against North Central University on Saturday, both at Reynolds Field. Then in a rare Sunday appearance for the Eagles, Northwestern will welcome Northland College to St. Paul for yet another two-game series.