Santa Fe knocks off Wellington

ALMA -- A two-run single by senior Max Capps ended the game in the fifth inning Monday for the top-ranked Santa Fe baseball team, a 16-6 winner over visiting Wellington-Napoleon.

The Tigers had the distinction of scoring the first earned run off Chiefs' pitching this season with junior Christian Nixdorf's first-inning two-out homer off of senior Taylor Wesley.

Sophomore Nathan Wesley and junior Hunter Rolf had RBI singles and Taylor Wesley plated two runs with a base hit in the second for Santa Fe. Junior Matt Lovercamp knocked in two runs with a triple in the third to give the Chiefs a 7-1 lead.

Wellington (1-7) tallied five runs, three on an error and the last on sophomore Taylor Bryant's single, to close the within a run in the top of the fourth -- but it wouldn't remain close.

Santa Fe erupted for seven runs on six free passes and three hits, the big one senior Logan Kirchhoff's three-run dinger, in the fourth and closed out the victory early the next time up.

Rolf, Nathan Wesley, Kirchhoff and junior Jacob Hollingsworth each scored three runs for the Chiefs (5-0) -- pushing their winning streak to 24 games dating back to last year's state championship season.

Santa Fe will be at home Thursday to face St. Paul.