ST. PAUL – Northwestern College and Bethany Lutheran College entered their Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) doubleheader on Tuesday with little on the line for each team. If one team swept the other, the winner would guarantee itself the No. 2 seed in this weekend's conference tournament, with the losing team being awarded the third seed. What did potentially matter was what team would grab the remaining No. 4 seed – Martin Luther College or Northland College. A sweep for Northwestern would mean a UMAC berth for Northland, who split a doubleheader with the Eagles on Sunday. A sweep for Bethany meant Martin Luther was in thanks to their Monday split. The result? Northwestern took Game 1 against the Vikings by a 14-8 score, but the Eagles jinxed themselves down the stretch of the second game, losing 10-7 in 11 innings to split the two-game series and leave both Martin Luther and Northland hanging for a play-in game on Thursday night to determine which team gets to move on.

Game 1 Box Score | Game 2 Box Score

Runs were aplenty in Game 1 as Bethany Lutheran and Northwestern combined for 22 over the course of nine innings. The Eagles broke open a 4-4 tie with an eight-run seventh inning as NWC recorded ten consecutive hits against pitcher Tyler Woodside.

Northwestern and Bethany each scored a run in the first two innings before the Vikings claimed a 3-1 advantage with two runs in the top of the fourth inning, due much in part to back-to-back walks. Before the Eagles' big seventh frame, the Purple and Gold knocked in three runs in the sixth to take a brief one-run lead. Bryan McCallum (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) and Andy Peterson (Rogers, Minn./Rogers) hit consecutive doubles to start the inning before Taylor Gonyea (Pine City, Minn./Pine City) scored on a Lance Lebaron (Anoka, Minn./Anoka) RBI groundout and Taylor McMurray (Vadnais Heights, Minn./Totino-Grace) crossed home plate courtesy of a Bethany passed ball.

Then came one of Northwestern's best one-inning offensive performances of the year, when Zach Markwith (Honolulu, Hawaii/St. Louis) singled through the left side twice in the same frame. McMurray, Lebaron, Cody Durkee (Wilton, N.D./Wilton) and Cody Kielsa (Howard Lake, Minn./Rogers) all picked up RBIs in the inning.

As Northwestern was finding success at the plate, Matt Doss (Pillager, Minn./Pillager) was maintaining things on the mound for the Eagles. Doss allowed five earned runs over his seven and two-thirds innings before turning the final outs over to TJ Studer (Perham, Minn/Perham), who gave up one run and two hits.

Markwith, McCallum and Gonyea each had three hits in the game, with Lebaron turning in a three-RBI performance.

The second game of the day was a back and forth contest that saw both head coaches substituting what seemed to be a player or two every inning with both the Vikings and Eagles having played doubleheaders on Sunday and Monday. Just three of the 11 innings that were played did not feature a run scored from either team.

Northwestern took advantage of two first inning walks to bring home a pair of runs. Bethany responded with a run in the second after Matt McPartland doubled to lead off the inning, forcing the Eagles to answer back with a run of their own in the bottom of the third, when McCallum's single up the middle brought in Kielsa. Bethany got back on the board in the fourth, putting a two-spot on NWC pitcher Drew Tennyson (Stuartevant, Wis./Christian Life), who started the game and went six innings on the hill, and tying the game at three runs apiece.

Back-to-back hits and some small ball to follow allowed BLC to take a short lead in the top of the sixth frame before the Eagles seemed to put themselves in good position with two runs in the bottom half of the inning. With the bases loaded, Kielsa drew a walk to score McMurray before a Vikings passed ball allowed Durkee to come home.

Drew Stein (Circle Pines, Minn./Centennial) appeared to be in control on the mound after relieving Tennyson, forcing a zero on Bethany's side of the scoreboard in the seventh and eighth innings. Meanwhile, NWC added to its one-run lead with RBIs from McCallum and Aaron Rau (Woodbury, Minn./East Ridge) to give the home team a three-run pad with just three outs needed to win the game. Those three outs took too long to make as the Vikings found themselves ready to score following two Stein walks and a hit batter. Eagles head coach Dave Hieb called on Connor Olson (Mahtomedi, Minn/Mahtomedi) to take over on the rubber, but McPartland came home on a wild pitch before an infield hit from Deric Poldberg brought in Bethany's third run of the inning to tie the game.

Fast forward to the top of the 11th inning, when a pair of defensive blunders set Northwestern up for disappointment. With McMurray on the mound, Garrett Benson earned first base on an overthrow by Austin Adamson (Willmar, Minn./Willmar) before Poldberg found himself on base when Andy Haagenson (Minneapolis, Minn./Henry Sibley) misplayed a ball. Mitch Sellers then hit a double to right center to score both Benson and Poldberg before Sellers came home himself on a Dylan Gass single.

Northwestern followed with a three-up, three-down bottom of the inning to end the game with neither team earning a sweep and Martin Luther and Northland readying themselves for a trip to Duluth, Minn. on Thursday.

McCallum continued to tear it up at the plate with three hits in Game 2. In his last 29 at-bats, the senior has recorded 16 hits with four of them going for extra bases, adding up to a .552 average during that period of time. Kielsa added a 2-3 performance with three runs scored.

Now 15-16 overall, Northwestern finishes the UMAC regular season with a 10-4 conference record and will head to the league tournament as the No. 3 seed following a coin flip. Tuesday's games didn't matter in determining who the Eagles would face on in Friday's 10 a.m. first round game as NWC knew it would square off with Bethany Lutheran in a more meaningful rematch before Tuesday's doubleheader even started.

The double-elimination UMAC Tournament will feature four games on Friday with the first team to lose twice going home that night and the remaining three advancing to Saturday. A berth in the NCAA Tournament is on the line for the UMAC winner. All six games (seven if an if-necessary game is played) will be broadcast online at csssaints.com/ssn courtesy of the College of St. Scholastica, the UMAC Tournament host.