Minnesota Crookston rallied from an early 5-0 deficit, then held off a ninth-inning Wayne State rally, to edge the Wildcats 11-9 in the finale of a four-game Northern Sun Conference baseball series in Pueblo, Colorado Monday afternoon. UMC is 4-3 and 3-1 in the NSIC and WSC drops to 2-6 and 1-3 in league play.
Wayne State opened the scoring with five runs in the second. Big hits in the inning for the 'Cats were a two-run double by
Max Heard and an RBI double by
Braden Cannon.
Minnesota Crookston matched Wayne State's five-run second by scoring five in the bottom of the third to even the score at 5-5.
WSC regained the lead in the fourth when designated hitter
Nate Cunningham belted a solo homer to center field giving the 'Cats a 6-5 lead.
The 'Cats added another run in the fifth when
Gabe Monosmith's RBI single brought home Heard, who singled, giving WSC a 7-5 cushion.
The Golden Eagles took their first lead of the day in the bottom of the fifth scoring four runs for a 9-7 lead.
Wayne State evened the score at 9-9 with a pair of runs in the sixth as Heard belted a two-run homer over the left center field fence scoring
Chase Douglas (walked).
Minnesota Crookston produced single runs in the seventh and eighth innings to take an 11-9 lead.
Wayne State threatened to tie the score in the ninth, putting runners on second and third with just one out, but could not get the big hit to bring in the tying run. Heard walked and
Quinn McCafferty walked and the 'Cats pulled off a double steal to put runners at second and third with just one out.
But UMC got a strike out and fly out to right field to end the game, hanging on for the 11-9 win.
Both teams had 11 hits in the contest. Heard finished 4 for 5 with a homer, double and four RBI with two runs scored. Monosmith went 2 for 3 with an RBI and run scored while Cunningham had a solo homer and scored twice. Cannon also doubled for WSC.
Eli Crnkovich, the fourth of six Wildcat pitchers, suffered the loss allowing two runs on three hits over 2 1/3 innings of relief.
Brooks Kneifl started the contest and worked 2 2/3 innings charged with five runs on three hits with four walks and four strikeouts.
The Wildcats resume play on Saturday, March 8
th when WSC begins their annual spring break trip to Florida facing Embry-Riddle (Fla.) in Daytona Beach, Florida at 2 p.m.