Baseball 4/22/04 -- Augsburg 20, Crown 5 (7 inn.)

GAME BOXSCORE

VICTORIA, Minn. (4/22/04) -- Pat Knafla (Sr., Rice, Minn./Sauk Rapids-Rice HS) continued his team-leading hitting stretch, going 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored and six runs batted in, leading Augsburg College to a 20-5 victory over Crown College in a nonconference baseball game Thursday evening at Victoria Lions Field.

Knafla, currently leading the team with a .411 batting average, drove in runs in five of his six plate appearances on the day, including RBI singles in the first and second innings, a two-run single in the third inning, a bases-loaded walk in the fourth inning and a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Augsburg broke a five-game losing streak in improving to 13-17 on the season with the win, in a game originally scheduled for nine innings but shortened to seven. Crown, an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference team, is now 8-17 on the season.

Andy Nelson (So., Waseca, Minn.) stroked his first collegiate home run, a two-run blast in the second inning, as Augsburg scored all 20 of its runs in the first five innings of play.

A two-run single by Joe Haehn (So., Minneapolis, Minn./Washburn HS) plated runs in the first inning, and after Nelson's homer and Knafla's RBI single, Haehn drove in another run on a single in the second. Haehn went 2-for-4 at the plate, driving in five runs.

Four more runs came across in the third inning, as Troy Deden (So., Northfield, Minn.) drove in a run on a fielder's choice, another run came across on a fielding error, and Knafla hit a two-run single.

In the fourth, Augsburg sent 11 batters to the plate and scored five runs, one on a single by Nelson, one on a bases-loaded hit batter and another on a bases-loaded walk, another on a throwing error and the final run on a sacrifice fly by Haehn.

A run-scoring double by Mark Bauer (Fr., Hastings, Minn.) notched him his first collegiate RBI in the fifth inning, and RBI sacrifice flies by Knafla and Haehn completed the Augsburg scoring.

Nelson and Jon Kozitza (Jr., North Mankato, Minn./Mankato West HS) scored four runs apiece, while Brian Bambenek (Fr., St. Charles, Minn.) scored three runs. Collin Nash (Sr., Rochester, Minn./Mayo HS) went 2-for-5 at the plate, scoring a run.

Crown scored a single run in the first, on an RBI single by Seth Parise, and another run in the fourth, on a run-scoring triple by Curt Larson. Crown plated three runs in the fifth, on a single by Brad Nelson and a double by Chris Stay.

Andy Dahl (Sr., Cottonwood, Minn./Lakeview HS) struck out three in five innings of work to pick up the pitching win for the Auggies. Josh Remme (So., Faribault, Minn.) pitched two scoreless innnings of relief, striking out five of the eight batters he faced. Crown used four pitchers in the game.

Augsburg returns to Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Saturday (4/24) with its final home doubleheader of the season, against Carleton at 1 p.m. at Parade Stadium.