04/03/07

For the third consecutive outing, Saints starting pitching shut down Northwestern College allowing the Saints to finish off the back half of a Monday doubleheader sweep of the Eagles in St. Paul with a 3-1 victory.

Mark Moriarty led the way in Sunday's win and Mark Erickson kept the Eagles scoreless in Monday's game one win. This time around it was Chad Weiss' turn.

Weiss pitched four scoreless innings to keep the Eagles in check, surrendering only three hits while striking out four without a walk to pick up the win for the Saints (15-3, 3-0 UMAC).

Adian Kummet pitched the final three innings and allowed only an unearned run in the seventh. The Eagles got only one hit off Kummet who walked none and struck out five.

Northwestern starter Andy Evensen did the best job of any of the Eagles pitchers in the series at holding the Saints' run count down as he allowed only one earned run on eight hits in taking the loss for the Eagles (10-9, 0-3 UMAC).

Consecutive two-out doubles from Steve Kraushaar and Keith Ritsche produced the Saints first run in the top half of the opening inning.

Evensen did his best to keep the Saints off the base paths over the next few innings but was undone in the fifth and sixth innings with unearned runs that put the Saints ahead 3-0.

Only an Eagles unearned run in their final at bat kept the Saints from shutting out their hosts for the second time of the day.

Ritsche had the only multi-hit game for either team, finishing 2-for-3 with an RBI.

The win pushes the Saints current win streak to 13 games.

The Saints won't have much time off, if the weather holds out, as they must turn around after arriving home Monday night and head back out on the road on Tuesday for a doubleheader at Northland College in Ashland, Wis.