College Sports
Baseball bows out of MIAC Playoffs to Bethel in second elimination game of day
Story Links Box Score 2025 MIAC Baseball Playoffs COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – In its second elimination game of the day, the fourth-seeded St. Olaf College baseball team bowed out of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference […]
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – In its second elimination game of the day, the fourth-seeded St. Olaf College baseball team bowed out of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Baseball Playoffs with a 5-2 loss to second-seeded Bethel University on Friday evening at Becker Park.
After eliminating third-seeded Saint John’s University earlier in the day, St. Olaf (23-16) led 2-0 in the sixth thanks to home runs from junior Mason Buck and sophomore Kanen Kreafle, but Bethel (30-12) rallied with two in the sixth and three in the eighth to claim the come-from-behind win. With the win, the Royals will need to defeat nationally-ranked and top-seeded Gustavus Adolphus College twice on Saturday to secure the title.
The loss brought an end to the careers of St. Olaf’s senior class, which helped the Oles to back-to-back MIAC Playoff appearances in the last two seasons and a 2024 MIAC regular-season title.
Buck and Kreafle accounted for all four of St. Olaf’s hits in the loss. Buck was 2-for-3 with a walk and a solo home run, while Kreafle was 2-for-3 with his first collegiate home run.
In the longest start of his collegiate career, sophomore Nick Levasseur held Bethel to two runs on six hits with five walks and four strikeouts over 5.2 innings in a no-decision. Levasseur induced three double plays to help keep the Royals scoreless until the sixth.
In a scoreless game, Kreafle led off the top of the third with an opposite-field solo home run before Buck started the top of the fourth with a solo shot for his third homer of the season. Levasseur got out of a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the bottom of the fourth with a swinging strikeout.
Bethel tied the game in the sixth on a sacrifice fly followed by a two-out single to chase Levasseur, but sophomore Joey Haas got the Oles out of the inning with a strikeout to keep the game tied. The game remained tied until Isaac Call hit a two-run home run two batters into what turned into a three-run bottom of the eighth for the Royals.