04/21/07

Freshman Jeff Adams got his first collegiate start for the Saints (19-4, 7-0 UMAC) and pitched three perfect innings while his teammates were jumping out to a 7-0 lead that would eventually turn into an 8-0 shutout victory over Crown College (2-8, 0-3) on Saturday afternoon at Wade Stadium in Duluth.

Adams (1-0) struck out three of the nine batters he faced and didn't allow a ball out of the infield.

The Saints scored two in the first for Adams, then pushed five more across in the second -- all unearned -- behind a pair of costly Crown errors and a wild pitch.

Both Keith Ritsche and Mike Lewis picked up a pair of hits for the Saints in the win. Ritsche collected two RBI and scored twice, while Lewis finished with one RBI and one run scored.

Blake Eller had only one hit, a triple in the fifth that brought in Kane Aubol, but walked twice and scored a run. With his team-leading ninth triple, Eller inched closer to the NCAA single-season record of 15 held by 2006 St. Scholastica graduate Luke Olin who set the mark last season.

Garrett Groebner and Brandon Fritz combined to limit Crown to a pair of singles in relief of Adams and, like the Saints starter, didn't surrender a walk. The pitching trio totaled nine strikeouts in seven innings.