Carleton Baseball Goes 2-1 In Opening Week At U.S. Bank Stadium

Minneapolis, MN —The Carleton College baseball team opened the season this week by winning two of three games indoors at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

On Thursday, senior infielders Jacob Small and Cayten Gardner led the way for the Knights, collecting three hits apiece and knocking in a combined five runs (3 for Small, 2 for Gardner) in a 10-2 victory of UW-Eau Claire.

Carleton starter Ben Jeweler, a junior, and four relievers held the Bluegolds offense in check. Jeweler gave up one run in 3.1 innings of work.

"It was a total team effort today," Carleton head coach Aaron Rushing said. "Five pitchers contributed to a strong outing on the mound, we had great at-bats up and down the lineup, and we played errorless defense. I'm really pleased with the effort today."

Senior infield Sam Schur, senior infielder Paul Hinton and sophomore infielder/outfielder Steve Antrim had two hits apiece for Carleton.

Through three games, Schur and Hinton lead the Knights with a .545 batting average. Those two, Small, Gardner and senior catcher/first baseman Jacob Smith are tied for the team lead with three RBIs.

The Knights opened the season Tuesday by splitting a doubleheader with College of St. Scholastica.

Pitching was the key in the season opener, as sophomore Kiefer Lord went the distance —seven innings —and struck out 15 in a 5-0 shutout of the Saints.

Hinton knocked in two runs, Smith went 3-for-3 with an RBI, Schur was 3-for-4 with an RBI and Gardner also knocked in a run.

The Knights lost Game 2 by a score of 6-4. Small went 2-for-4 and Schur, Hinton and Steve Antrim all knocked in a run in that contest.

"What a treat to open the year in U.S. Bank Stadium," Rushing said. "The guys played hard, and we had a lot of really strong performances. Our pitchers were aggressive and threw strikes, we had quality at-bats up and down the lineup, and outside of one inning, we played nearly flawless defense on the day. We've got some things to work on, but it was a strong effort on day one."

Carleton now will pause for winter term final exams before heading to California for Spring Break on March 18-26.

There, the Knights are scheduled to play nine games: five against Cal Tech on March 18-19 and one each against Chapman (March 20), Whittier (March 22), Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (March 25) and University of Pugent Sound (March 26).