Baseball 4/30/05 -- Augsburg 10-3, St. Mary's 0-2 

GAME 1 BOXSCORE
GAME 2 BOXSCORE


MINNEAPOLIS (4/30/05) -- Ricky Schreier (Jr., St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a triple in the first game, and Darren Ginther (Jr., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) went 2-for-3 and scored a run in the second game, leading the Augsburg College baseball team to a sweep of St. Mary's University in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader on Saturday afternoon at Parade Stadium.

The Auggies won the first game 10-0 and took the second game 3-2 to improve to 19-13 overall, 9-5 in MIAC play. With six games remaining in the regular season, Augsburg now moves into third place in the MIAC standings, in its pursuit of its first-ever trip to the four-team MIAC postseason playoffs. St. mary's is now 14-11 overall, 7-9 in MIAC play.

Augsburg's top two pitchers threw strong performances in the sweep. Ginther threw six innings of shutout action in the first game, striking out two and allowing just three hits and five walks. Meanwhile, Jeremy Nelson (Sr., Maplewood, Minn./Roseville HS), in his last home game at Parade Stadium, struck out four while allowing two walks and seven hits in four-plus innings of work in the second game.

Tyler Kraft (So., Savage, Minn./Burnsville HS), Augsburg's workhorse reliever, pitched a shutout seventh inning in the first game and three innings of relief, striking out four and allowing just one hit, in the second game for his fourth save, marking the fifth time he has appeared in both games of a doubleheader this season. He has now pitched in 19 of Augsburg's 32 games this year.

To open the first game, Ginther walked, stole second and scored after a two-out fielding error in the first inning, followed by run-scoring singles by Taylor Pagel (Sr., Cannon Falls, Minn.) and Andrew Werner (Fr., Vermillion, Minn./Hastings HS). Matt Johnson (So., Plymouth, Minn./Osseo HS) opened the fourth inning with a triple and scored after Ginther reached base on an error, and Schreier tripled to lead off the fifth inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Werner.

Augsburg sent 11 batters to the plate in the sixth inning, scoring five runs to clinch the win. The key hit was a three-run triple by Troy Deden (Jr., Northfield, Minn.), followed by a run-scoring double by Pagel and a run-scoring single by Schreier.

Jeff Stomberg (Fr., Lino Lakes, Minn./Centennial HS) went 2-for-4 with a run scored for the Auggies in the first game, while Pagel went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI.

Jesse Pedersen (Sr., St. Charles, Minn.) started for St. Mary's and went five innings, striking out four while walking five and allowing nine hits. Six of the nine runs charged to him were earned. Tim Kreiser (Jr., Eagan, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) and Jason Bujold (So., Roseville, Minn./Mounds View HS) pitched in relief for the Cardinals.

Augsburg built a 3-0 lead in the second game, behind an RBI single by Brian Bambenek (So., St. Charles, Minn.) in the second inning and an RBI double by Deden in the third inning. Bambenek singled, stole second and scored after a single and fielding error in the fourth inning. Bambenek and Ginther each went 2-for-3 for the Auggies in the second game.

St. Mary's cut into the lead in the fifth inning, as Brady Kundsen (So., Racine, Wis./Park HS) doubled to drive in Nick Winecke (So., St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall HS) and Ryan Majerus (Sr., St. Charles, Minn.). Knudsen and Winecke went 2-for-4 each for the Cardinals.

St. Mary's had eight hits in the second game, but stranded 10 runners -- leaving the bases loaded in the second inning and leaving two runners aboard in the third and fifth. The Cardinals also stranded the potential tying run at third base in the sixth inning and went down in order in the seventh to end the game, as Kraft retired nine of the 10 batters he faced.

David Reiter (Jr., Elgin, Minn./Elgin-Millville HS) started for the Cardinals and struck out four in his 5.1 innings of work, with Mike Mitchell (Fr., Mound, Minn./Mound-Westonka HS) pitching in relief in the sixth inning.

After five days off for finals week, Augsburg will close the regular season with three MIAC doubleheaders on the road. The Auggies will play at Macalester next Friday (5/6) at 2:30 p.m., in a game moved from Augsburg after a scheduling conflict with Parade Stadium. The Auggies will face league-leader St. Thomas on the road next Sunday (5/8) at 1 p.m., and will close the regular season with a rescheduled doubleheader next Monday (5/9) at 12 p.m. against Concordia-Moorhead at Faber Field in St. Cloud, Minn.

St. Mary's returns to nonconference action at Viterbo (Wis.) on Tuesday (5/3) at 3 p.m., and closes its MIAC campaign with home doubleheaders next Wednesday (5/4) at 1 p.m. against Concordia-Moorhead and next Sunday at 1 p.m. against St. Olaf.