Baseball team splits Opening Day games with Bethel University

UW-Stout 6, Bethel University 5 | Bethel University 7, UW-Stout 3

ST. PAUL, Minn. (March 9, 2015) – In what are most likely the earliest games played outdoors in the upper Midwest by a UW-Stout baseball team, the Blue Devils split their season opener against Bethel University, winning the first, 6-5, but dropping the second, 7-3, at the University of Northwestern Reynolds Field Monday.
 
The Blue Devil baseball program had played game in February at the now demolished Metrodome, but that option is no longer available. Today's games were originally scheduled to be played in Marion, Ill., last weekend, but a snowstorm eliminated that possibility. Northwestern has an artificial surface baseball field, as does Minnetonka High School where Stout will play Hamline University Tuesday, March 10 at 1 p.m.
 
Jack Schneider (Sr, Minneapolis, Minn) drove in three runs throughout the first game and Brady Burzynski (Jr, Eau Claire) had a three-run home run in the sixth inning, but the Blue Devils still had to hang on for a wild 6-5 first game win.
 
The Royals took a 2-0 lead, getting single runs in the third and fourth innings, but the Blue Devils tied the score in the fifth inning when Schneider drove in runners on second and third with a single to right field.
 
Schneider put the Blue Devils ahead in the sixth inning with a single to left field and Burzynski game Stout a 6-2 lead with a three-run home run to right field.
 
But the Royals weren't packing it in, scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh to pull to within 6-5, then putting a runner on third with one out.
 
Austin Booher (Jr, Stillwater, Minn) came on to relieve Zach Carlson (So, Indian Trails, Ill), forcing a flyout to centerfield and then struck out the final batter to pick up his first save as a Blue Devil.  Carlson went 6.1 innings, giving up all five earned runs on eight hits. Carlson notched five strikeouts and walked three.
 
Schneider, batting in the second spot of the lineup, finished the game hitting 3-for-4, while Burzynski was 2-for-4.  Lead-off hitter Bryce Marquardt was 3-for-4 for Bethel. Both teams finished with eight hits.

In the nightcap, the Royals' Marquardt led off the game with a home run in the top of the first, but Stout took the lead in the bottom half of the inning when Charlie Meyer (Sr, Janesville) smacked a two-run double to right field.

It was all Royals after that. Jared Watts hit a home run in the third inning and Nik Anderson put Bethel in the lead with an RBI single in the fourth. Watts followed up with a three-run home run in the inning and Bethel led 6-2. Bethel added a run in the sixth and Stout put up a single run in the bottom of the seventh on Jake Lunow 's (Sr, Princeton) RBI infield single. Bethel outhit Stout, 12-6.

Stout returns to action Tuesday, March 10 when they face Hamline University at 1 p.m. at Minnetonka High School.