Baseball 4/14/01 -- Augsburg 5-5, St. John's 7-4 

Boxscore Game 1
Boxscore Game 2

ST. CLOUD, Minn. (4/14/01) -- Ryan Krautkremer (Jr., Waseca, Minn.) had two home runs and pitched a complete-game victory in the second game, while Rich Storholm (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./St. Louis Park HS) extended his consecutive-game hitting streak to 16 straight games, as Augsburg College claimed a split with host St. John's University in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference baseball doubleheader Saturday afternoon at Dick Putz Field.

St. John's claimed a 7-5 win in the first game, while Augsburg held on for a 5-4 win in the second game. Augsburg is now 15-11 overall and 1-3 in MIAC play, while St. John's moves to 3-9 overall and 1-3 in the MIAC. The 15 victories are the most for an Augsburg team since the 1992 season, the school's last winning record (23-17).

Krautkremer hit a solo homer in the first inning of the first game. He followed up with a complete-game win in the second contest, striking out four while walking three and allowing nine hits. Krautkremer swatted a two-run homer in the first inning of the second game.

Storholm, with a two-run homer in the sixth inning of the first game and a single in the fourth inning of the second game, extended his current hitting streak to 16 straight games. He is one of two Auggies with double-digit-game hitting streaks; Pat Marsh (Jr., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Cooper HS) had his streak extended to 13 straight games with a double in the first inning of the first game and 2-for-4 performance in the second game. It was his eighth multiple-hit game of the season.

Augsburg continued its strong hitting performance in the doubleheader with five home runs. The Auggies now have 21 homers on the season, more than doubling last year's output of nine. As a team, Augsburg now has 68 extra-base hits (40 doubles, seven triples, 21 home runs) with 14 games remaining in the regular season; it had 75 all of last season (51 doubles, 15 triples, nine home runs).

After a two-run first inning for the Auggies, the Johnnies notched six runs over their first three innings off of Auggie starter Nic Shelby (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./Holy Angels HS). Matt Pilon had a run-scoring triple, while Adam Brett drove in three runs on two doubles and sacrifice fly. Corey McKenzie went 3-for-3 with three runs scored and a double.

Dave Sherry (Jr., Hastings, Minn.) had a solo home run for the Auggies in the fourth inning.

Krautkremer's two-run homer in the first inning of the second game gave the Auggies an early lead, followed up by a run-scoring single by Frank Huebner (Jr., Northfield, Minn.) in the second and a solo homer by Joe Holman (So., Springfield, Minn.) and a run scored on an error in the fifth.

But St. John's had a late rally, keyed on two runs in the fourth and two runs in the seventh. The Johnnies had the potential game-winning run on base, with runners at first and third, in the bottom of the seventh before an infield groundout ended the game.

Mike Schwalen (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./Richfield HS) went 2-for-3 for the Auggies with a run-scoring double.

Jamie Louwagie went 3-for-3 with an RBI to lead the Johnnies, while John Hoffer went 2-for-3. Barry Folkens took the pitching loss for St. John's, striking out four while walking four in five-plus innings of work.

Augsburg returns to action with a doubleheader against Concordia-Moorhead Wednesday (4/18) at 2:30 p.m. at Parade Stadium. St. John's hosts St. Mary's on Tuesday (4/17) at 2:30 p.m. at Dick Putz Field.