DULUTH, Minn. – Four Bethany Lutheran players recorded multiple hits as the No. 2 Vikings captured their second consecutive Upper Midwest Athletic Conference championship with a 7-2 victory over the UW-Superior baseball team at Wade Stadium Saturday.
 
BLC (22-16) outhit the fourth-seeded Yellowjackets and scored runs in five different innings to earn the league's automatic qualification to the NCAA tournament.
 
Superior's season comes to an end after a valiant showing in the tournament which saw the 'Jackets eliminate both Crown Thursday and Northwestern Friday. The run also included the team's first victory over local rival and tournament top seed St. Scholastica in 28 years.
 
Jake LaBerge was 2-for-4 with two doubles and two runs batted in, while Conner Side went 2-for-3 with a triple, walk and three runs scored to pace the Vikings' win.
 
Braeden Barr (San Diego, Calif./Grossmont) was 2-for-4 with a home run in his final collegiate game to lead UWS. He was also the last of six UWS pitchers on the day, getting a double play to end the bottom of the eighth inning. 
 
The 'Jackets' offense was held in check most of the day by BLC starter Adam Fjerstad, who worked two outs into the fifth, and Logan Nissen (5-6). The pair limited UWS to six hits and two walks, while striking out six and stranding seven on the bases.
 
Bethany Lutheran got on the board first in the second inning. Brady Schuster hit a one-out double to left center off of Boone Elkins (Riverside, Calif./Arlington). Side followed with a single up the middle, but center fielder Brandon Rolf (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater) gunned down Schuster at the plate for the second out.
 
Side moved to second on the play and to third on a wild pitch with LaBerge batting. LaBerge lifted a pop up that the wind ahold of in center. The ball fell in front of Rolf, scoring Side for a 1-0 lead.
 
The 'Jackets threatened in the fourth, putting runners on first and second with one out on consecutive singles by Cory Albertson (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area) and Barr. Matthew Boyde (Chanhassen, Minn./Minnetonka) beat a double-play relay to first, erasing Barr. Albertson advanced to third on the play, but Travis Miller (Whittier, Calif./La Serna) grounded to shortstop end the inning.
 
The Vikings made it 4-0 in the fourth off of Auggie Anderson (Mendota Heights, Minn./Henry Sibley). After Anderson recorded the first out of the inning, Schuster singled to right and Side walked. Anderson then uncorked a wild pitch, moving the runners to second and third, before getting LaBerge to strike out swinging.
 
Jared Gesell then ripped a triple down the right-field line, plating Side and Schuster for a 3-0 edge. Gesell scored when Albertson couldn't handle an Anderson pitch behind the plate for a four-run lead. Two batters later, Zach Bennett (Corona, Calif./Santiago) on in relief of Anderson hit Boran to load the bases. Bennett induced a fly ball from Nick Caldeen, though, and Rolf made a sliding catch on the warning track to end the frame.
 
UWS got a run in the top of the fifth inning, but it could have had more. Flanagan bounced a ball to third base with one out that Schuster airmailed the throw to first, getting Flanagan second. Nick Fredrikson (Minneapolis, Minn./St. Anthony Village) followed with an RBI single to right center, moving to second on throw to plate. Osness walked, putting runners on first and second, which spelled the end of the day for Fjerstad. 
 
With Alec Rabin (Deerfield, Ill./Deerfield) up, the Vikings caught Fredrickson in a rundown between second and third for the second out. Rabin walked for runners on first and second again, but Albertson grounded out to end the inning.
 
BLC added two more in the sixth for a 6-1 lead. Gesell came home on a wild pitch after drawing a walk from Mitch Coulson (Thunder Bay, Ontario/Hammarskjold) to start the inning. Beumer later singled up the middle against Elliot Danhoff (Gladstone, Mich./Gladstone), scoring La Berge with one out.
 
Trailing, 7-1, with one out in the eighth, Barr launched a pitch from Nissen over the wall in left for the sixth home run of his senior season. 
 
Elkins pitched the first 2.1 innings before handing the ball to Anderson. Elkins allowed five hits, one run, one walk and got one strikeout.
 
UWS will say goodbye to 13 seniors who have teamed up for 62 victories in their four-years careers.