The University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC) Golden Eagle Baseball team won their fourth straight game with a 7-3 victory over West Virginia Wesleyan College (WVWC) in Auburndale, Florida.
UMC started the scoring in the bottom of the first inning. Ben Bryant (Soph. Fargo, ND) led off the inning with a single and advanced to second base on a Travis Conoryea (Jr. Inver Grove Heights) sacrifice. The next batter, Mason Ruhlman (Sr. Algonac, Mich) grounded out to second base, but that allowed Bryant to advance to third before Brad Morris (Jr. Auckland, New Zealand) singled to score Bryant and the Golden Eagles led 1-0.
UMC added another run in the fourth inning with a Scott Finberg (Sr. Stillwater) solo home run for a 2-0 lead.
WVWC scored their first run of the game in the top of the fifth inning after a single, an error and another single to cut the Golden Eagle lead in half (2-1).
UMC responded with a run in the bottom of the fifth when Conoryea walked to lead off the inning and advance to second on a wild pitch. Ruhlman reached on an error on the first baseman and a hustling Conoryea scored from second base to give the Golden Eagles a 3-1 lead.
UMC broke the game open with three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning with Morris reaching on a triple and scoring on a Brock Reller (Jr. Grand Forks, ND) single. Two more runs scored on a Finberg home run for a 6-1 lead.
The three-run inning was important for UMC because WVWC bounced back with two runs on a double to get within a 6-3 deficit. UMC responded with a Reller home run in the bottom of the eighth inning to take a 7-3 lead and the Golden Eagles retired the side in the top of the ninth to pick up their fourth win in a row with a 7-3 victory.
Finberg and Morris were both 3 of 5 at the plate. Finberg had three runs batted in and two runs scored. Matt Nelson (Soph. Afton) picked up the win on the mound going six innings while scattering six hits, striking out eight and only walking one batter.
UMC improves to 7-4 on the year and takes on the University of Sciences (Pennsylvania) Thursday afternoon. West Virginia Wesleyan College drops to 0-10 on the year.
