ST. PAUL – The University of Northwestern baseball team won both games of a Saturday doubleheader versus Crown College, sweeping the Storm to finish the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) portion of its schedule with a 13-8 league record. A 14-3 victory in the first game guaranteed the No. 3 spot in next week's conference tournament for the Eagles, allowing head coach Dave Hieb to play more guys in the second game, which resulted in a 12-11 win for Northwestern.

Northwestern used 12 runs in the first two innings of the day's initial game to leave little doubt about the end result, the question was just a matter of whether it would be a seven-inning, 10-run rule finish or go the full scheduled nine innings. UNW began with a four-run first with Braxton Lindow (Cannon Falls, Minn./Cannon Falls)'s leadoff triple sparking the Eagles bats from the get-go. Matt Doss (Pillager, Minn./Pillager) had the first of two doubles for the game also in the first.

Crown struggled both defensively and on the mound in the early goings, helping Northwestern score runs via errors and hits. Trent Krekelberg and Garrett Lawson, the Storm's first two pitchers, combined for six walks as the Eagles put up eight runs on only four hits in the second inning. As a team, Crown committed seven errors in the game.

The game's pace was slow for those first two frames, which took over an hour to finish. Things sped up in a hurry though, as the remaining five innings took a mere hour to complete in what was a 2:05 duration. Northwestern pitcher Connor Olson (Mahtomedi, Minn/Mahtomedi) blazed through Crown's lineup from the mound and only had one hiccup with Dalton Wintersole hitting a three-run home run over the right field fence in the third.

UNW added two more runs in the fourth as Tyler Osborn (Clive, Iowa/Des Moines Christian)'s double and Ryan Sutterer (Anoka, Minn./Anoka )'s single both yielded RBIs and unearned scores for the Eagles, who had enough for a 10-plus run victory to end the game early.

Olson struck out four of the 31 Crown batters he faced en route to receiving credit for the victory. Michael Studer (St. Anthony Village, Minn. /St. Anthony Village) joined Doss and Osborn in the multiple hits column, going 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored.

Tucker Morrell (Elk River, Minn./Homeschool) was cruising from the mound in Saturday's Game 2 with plenty of run support along the way. Northwestern scored three runs in both the first and second innings with the day's usual suspects of Doss and Osborn providing RBIs at the plate. Before being substituted out to honor his final UMAC game, UNW team captain Taylor MacMurray hit a two-RBI triple in the second inning that scored Nathan Ehnstrom (Aitkin, Minn./Aitkin) and Brock Peterson (Cannon Falls, Minn./Cannon Falls).

Hieb continued with the substitutions throughout the game, allowing many of his junior varsity players the opportunity to see the field in a varsity contest. Brett Reinhart (Chanhassen, Minn./Southwest Christian) added a bases-clearing triple of his own in the fifth to put Northwestern ahead 11-0.

Morrell forced Crown to put up zeros on the scoreboard in every inning until the sixth, when the Eagles still had a 10-run lead after the Storm's Seth Herdle hit an RBI single that brought in a run. With all of Northwestern's starting field players out of the game, Morrell went out needing three runs to claim another 10-run rule victory for UNW in the seventh. Crown, however, had different plans as it stuck around long enough to get within a run of the Eagles thanks to grand slam home runs in both the seventh and eighth frames off of Morrell and relief pitcher Jonathan Ellis. Fortunately for Northwestern, a double steal call worked in the bottom of the seventh as David Beer (Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake) III scored what proved to be the winning run in a 12-11 finish.

Both teams finished with 14 or more hits in a game that featured six errors between the two squads. Morrell received credit for the victory, with Erik Nyquist (Elk River, Minn./Pine Island) pitching a scoreless ninth inning to earn a save.

By the end of the game, 26 different players in an Eagles uniform had seen action on the field or in the batter's box with Hieb having run out of depth at certain positions; Nelson, the Game 1 starter, filled in at shortstop in the ninth inning. Beer and McMurray both had two hits, while Reinhart leading the way with three RBI. 

Now 20-18 overall, Northwestern will play a nonconference game on Tuesday against Bethel University before heading to Duluth, Minn. for Thursday's 10 a.m. UMAC Tournament opener against Northland College at Wade Stadium. An official start time for what was originally scheduled as a doubleheader against Bethel has not yet been confirmed with possibilities ranging between 5 and 6 p.m. at Reynolds Field. Stay tuned to unweagles.com as details become available.