Wayne State baseball earned a split with the Mustangs from Southwest Minnesota State University this afternoon capped off by a 20-10 victory in game two. The 'Cats improve to 24-21 and are 16-16 in the NSIC and SMSU moves to 19-24 and 9-22 in the league.
The opener saw the Wildcats held to just one run by SMSU starting pitcher Ryan Bell as the Mustangs rolled to an 8-1 win. SMSU had just one more hit than WSC – 8-7 – but took advantage of seven hit batters and three walks from Wildcat pitching.
The Mustangs scored one run in the first and three more in the second for an early 4-0 lead.
The 'Cats got their lone run of the contest in the bottom of the second when
Brayden Chaney had a sacrifice bunt to bring home
Braden Cannon, who singled earlier in the inning.
SMSU added two runs in the fifth and two more in the seventh to close out the scoring for the 8-1 victory.
Nate Cunningham doubled for the only extra base hit in the game for WSC.
Cam Madsen,
Max Heard,
Gabe Monosmith, Cannon,
Casey Prychak and Chaney each singled.
Starting pitcher
Tyler Albert (6-3) was tagged with the pitching loss, charged with six runs on six hits in five innings of work with six strikeouts.
Gil Schroeder and
Grant Renken also saw action out of the bullpen.
The second game saw the Wildcats erupt for 10 runs in the second inning in the 20-10 victory. Both team combined for 10 home runs in the second contest with each squad recording five each.
Both teams scored single runs in the first inning with WSC using a sacrifice fly from Cunningham to score Heard who singled.
WSC batted around in the second inning, scoring 10 runs on eight hits with three home runs, as the 'Cats took control with an 11-1 lead. Cannon opened the inning with a solo homer to left center field and later in the inning belted a two-run shot of the foul pole down the left field line. Cunningham also delivered a three-run shot in the second inning while Heard added a two-run double for another big hit in the high-scoring inning.
The Wildcats added three more runs in the fourth to grab a 14-1 advantage.
Easton Mains had an RBI double to score Cannon who walked to open the inning. Catcher
Korey Cozad added an RBI single to bring home Chaney (error) while pinch-runner
Noah Strizek scored on a sacrifice fly from Madsen for the third run of the inning.
The Mustangs started to cut into deficit in the fifth inning with four runs scored, including a three-run homer from Lane Moline. WSC responded with a
Paul Schuyler two-run home run out to left field to make it 16-5 in favor of the Wildcats through five innings.
Wayne was able to add one more run to the scoreboard to Southwest's five through the next three innings, making it a 17-10 ball game. In the bottom of the eighth inning
Noah Strizek walked to lead off. He proceeded to get to third safely after a stolen bag and throwing error by the Mustangs.
Cam Madsen was the next 'Cat to reach safely on a full count walk.
With runners on the corners,
Gabe Monosmith was able to extend the lead to 10 with a walk off three-run home run to left center. Wildcats take game two 20-10.
Monosmith went 4-5 at the plate with three runs and three RBIs. Five other 'Cats recorded two or more hits as well.
Braden Cannon hammered two home runs in the same inning to lead the Wildcats in homers with Monosmith, Schuyler and Cunningham each recording one.
Conlin Grady earned the win on the bump, improving to 5-1 on the year. Grady and
Brooks Kneifl each struck out two batters and
Clement Febus put away three Mustangs.
The 'Cats return to action on Tuesday, April 28 when Wayne State visits Northern State for a NSIC doubleheader at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. in Aberdeen, South Dakota.
