Junior lefthander
Corbin Kirk fired a four-hit shutout to lead Wayne State in a 4-0 win over St. Cloud State to open a Northern Sun Conference baseball doubleheader Saturday afternoon at the Pete Chapman Baseball Complex in Wayne, snapping a six-game Wildcat losing streak. The visiting Huskies came back to collect a 7-4 win in the second game to split the doubleheader. WSC is now 22-15 and 17-10 in the league while SCSU is 23-15 and 19-9 in league play.
The pitching of Kirk was the story of the opener, who out-battled SCSU lefthander Luke Tupy in a matchup of two of the top pitchers in the NSIC. Kirk gave up just four hits with five strikeouts and one walk in his third complete game and second shutout of the season.
The 'Cats scored single runs in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth innings in the win. In the third,
Braden Cannon led off with a walk and later scored on a wild pitch for the 1-0 lead.
WSC made it 2-0 in the fourth when
Trey Wells tripled and scored on a Husky throwing error.
Cam Madsen singled in the fifth and scored on a
Nick Barnett single to push the lead to 3-0 and a
Kaden Young solo homer in the sixth closed the scoring for the 4-0 victory.
Wells was 2 for 3 with a triple and run scored to lead WSC at the plate. Young homered while Barnett and Madsen each singled.
The second game saw St. Cloud State build a 7-0 lead and hold on for the 7-4 win over the Wildcats to gain a split of the twinbill.
The Huskies scored two runs in the first and third innings and three more in the fourth for a 7-0 advantage.
WSC got two runs back in the bottom of the fourth to make the score 7-2.
Kyler Essink singled and scored on a SCSU error for the first run while Cannon doubled and came home on a sacrifice fly by
Chase Douglas for the second run.
The 'Cats cut the Husky lead to 7-3 in the seventh when
Cade Lynam walked and scored on a
Quinn McCafferty groundout. The final run came in the eighth when Essink singled and pinch runner
Brayden Chaney later scored on a groundout by Madsen to make the final score 7-4.
Both teams had 10 hits in the contest. Essink went 3 for 4 with a run scored while Wells was 3 for 5 with a double. Cannon added a double, going 2 for 4 with one run scored. Madsen had two RBI with a single while
Colin Lynam had the other Wildcat hit.
Junior lefthander
Jacob Kneifl suffered the pitching loss in three innings of work.
Kadyn Van Hill pitched one inning of relief with junior righthander
Alex Calabrese firing five scoreless innings of relief, allowing just two hits with three strikeouts and one walk.
SCSU and WSC close out their three-game NSIC series Sunday with a nine-inning game starting at 12 p.m.