New Ulm, MN - The MLC baseball team played their first "home" game of the 2023 season with their doubleheader against Crown on Monday. The two games were supposed to be played on the campus of Crown last week. Despite the enthusiasm for the home opener, the Polars put away the Knights early in game one, when they defeated MLC 19-2. Crown followed up their win with another in game two, where they took it 14-4.

Crown 19, MLC 2

The bats were hot for MLC to start the first inning and jumped out to their only lead of the game (2-0). The two runs came from an RBI single by Mason Cox and a Jackson Lindemann sacrifice fly. The lead would not hold up for much longer though as the Polars knocked in six runs in the bottom of the first inning. From there, the Polars solved the MLC pitchers and tacked on 13 more runs to end the game in the seventh inning.

Lindemann was on the mound for the Knights and threw four innings. Aaron Bode came in for relief of Lindemann in the fourth inning to make another appearance on the season.

The Knights struggled in the field with four errors, but also made some solid plays defensively in the infield to end innings. MLC would record five hits to go along with the two runs.

Crown 14, MLC 4

In the second game of the doubleheader, Crown took a 10-0 lead through three innings on the diamond. However, Sam Rodriguez would change that with a two-run homer to left field, bringing home Lindemann on the play. The big fly was the first homerun since Carter Seltz's grand slam in the first meeting between the schools on April 18. Christian Bachenburg added another run for MLC in the top of the fourth, when the short stop hit a blooper into right field, scoring Caleb Heckendorf.

The three-run fourth inning gave the Knights a little life, as they saw themselves down 10-3 in the bottom half of the inning, but the Polars would add a run in the fith inning. 

MLC would make it 11-4 after Rodriguez hit a RBI groundout to second base, but Crown ended the game with three more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to put the mercy rule into effect.

The Knights once again had just five hits, but also did a solid job of getting on base with four walks drawn. Rodriguez was 1-3 with 3 RBI, while Bachenburg led MLC with two hits in the game.

Seltz was on the rubber, going four innings with 11 runs allowed on 11 hits.

MLC (3-15, 0-10) will face off against Bethany for their last matchup with the Vikings on Tuesday, April 25. First pitch is at 3 p.m.