SAINT PAUL, Minn. – For the Yellowjacket baseball team, one kept going and another, more remarkable streak went by the wayside.
 
Heading into play Sunday, the Yellowjackets were riding a five-game winning streak, with the remarkable piece coming because all five of those wins came via a shutout. The 39 consecutive scoreless innings was a Yellowjacket program record.
 
Sunday, the Yellowjackets stayed in the win column, which is obviously most important, but they said goodbye to their shutout streak. The Yellowjackets were victorious twice over North Central, taking the opening game 13-3 before closing out the sweep with a 25-1 win in the second at Reynolds Field in St. Paul.

The Yellowjackets (18-11, 14-3 UMAC) have now won seven straight heading into their final week of the 2023 regular season.

Game One
The shutout streak has been the story of late for the Yellowjackets, having not given up a run since falling to Minnesota Morris in walk-off fashion Apr. 14. North Central was able to break the streak with one out in the bottom of the fourth, ending the streak at 42.1 consecutive scoreless innings. Fortunately for the Yellowjackets, the game was well out of reach at that point, so the shutout streak was the only drama left.
 
The middle of the Yellowjacket batting order did a lot of damage in the opener, with Christian Garcia (Blue Springs, Mo./Blue Springs), Isaac Fugere (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East) and Nick Fredrikson (Minneapolis, Minn./St. Anthony Village) going a combined 11-for-15 while scoring six runs and driving in six.
 
It was Garcia who got the scoring started in the opener, singling to left field to score Ben Rhodes (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) with the first run in the top of the first.
 
The Yellowjackets blew the game open with a 10-run third inning. Garcia scored on a one-out double by Fugere, who himself came in on an infield single from Jordan Trimble (Victorville, Calif./Grandview (Colo.)). Noah Dagostino (Andover, Minn./Andover) brought in two runs with a bases-loaded single to left. Later in the inning two more scored on a Ben Rhodes (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) single. Fugere and Fredrikson closed out the inning with RBI singles to center field to make it an 11-0 game.
 
In the fourth the Yellowjackets added a 12th run before North Central scored twice in the bottom of the inning. In the fifth, Garcia led off with a double and scored the final run of the game for the Yellowjackets when Fugere singled to left. North Central would add their last run in the bottom of the fifth.
 
The teams would go scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings before the game was ended because of the run rule.
 
Ryan Rodriguez (Chaska, Minn./Chaska) got the start and went five innings for the Yellowjackets, allowing three runs on six hits to go along with three walks and seven strikeouts. He is now 6-1 in 2023. Aiden Pfeifer (Eden Prairie, Minn./Eden Prairie) pitched the final two innings.
 
Game Two
In the second game the Yellowjackets wasted no time blowing it open, scoring six times in the top of the first and 15 times in the first three innings.
Fugere and Fredrikson got it started again in the second game, singling back-to-back and giving the Yellowjackets a 4-0 lead. A sacrifice fly and wild pitch gave the Yellowjackets two more runs before the first inning was over.
 
The Yellowjackets extended their lead in the second when Ben Rhodes (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) drove in a run.
 
Then in the third the Yellowjackets blew it open with an eight-run inning.
 
Fugere led off the inning with a double and scored on a single by Brian O'Dwyer (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove Senior). Later in the inning Jonny Rhodes (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior), Dagostino, Payton Steiner (Baraboo, Wis./Baraboo), Ben Rhodes (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) and Garcia all had consecutive run-producing hits to make it 13-1. Fugere capped the inning with a two-run home run, his team-leading fourth of the season put the 'Jackets up 15-1.
 
In the fourth the Yellowjackets scored once, getting an RBI single from Steiner.
 
The last big inning of the day for the Yellowjackets came in the fifth, when they scored seven more runs. Sam McNosky (Minneapolis, Minn./DeLaSalle) drove in a run on a ground out to make it a 17-1 game. A bases-loaded walk to Jonny Rhodes (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) brought in a run, as did a single to left by Cole Ondrus (Esko, Minn./Esko). The Yellowjackets hit the 21-run mark for the second time in a week when Toby Boevers (Champlin, Minn./Champlin Park) singled to center to bring home two runs. Tanner Voight (Stillwater, Minn./Stillwater Area) got an RBI on a line out to right field, and Wylee Lottman (Kerkhoven, Minn./Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg) walked with the bases loaded to close out the scoring in the inning, with the 'Jackets up 23-1.
 
In the top of the seventh the Yellowjackets scored the final runs of the game, courtesy of Lottman, who hit his first collegiate home run, a two-run shot, to make the final 25-1.
 
It was a big offensive game for the Yellowjackets, who scored 25 times and had 21 hits. The 25 runs represents the most runs scored in a game since the Yellowjackets scored 26 against Finlandia Apr. 8, 2016.
 
Fugere went 3-for-3 in the game to finish the doubleheader going 8-for-8. He scored three runs and drove in three. Dagostino, Ondrus, Steiner, Garcia, Lottman and O'Dwyer all had multi-hit games.
 
Matt Tappe (St. Anthony, Minn./St. Anthony Village) started and earned the win, improving to 6-2 on the year. Tappe allowed one run on five hits in five innings. Ethan Coady (Toronto, Ontario/Etobicoke School of the Arts) and Kaleb Beane (Tallahassee, Fla./Leon) each pitched a scoreless inning to close the game out.
 
The Yellowjackets and Rams will close out their series Monday with a game at Reynolds Field, on the campus of the University of Northwestern. The first pitch is scheduled for noon.