sports

UMC BASEBALL SPLITS DOUBLEHEADER AGAINST AUGUSTANA

April 10, 2019

The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagles Baseball team earned a split against defending National Champion Augustana winning game one 2-1 in eight innings before falling 3-0 in game two in a pair of NSIC games played at the UMC baseball field.

GAME ONE – Minnesota Crookston utilized a strong starting pitching performance from Nate Albrecht (Sr., Wahpeton, ND) in game one keeping Minnesota Crookston in contention despite lackluster offensive production. In the bottom of the second inning, Brock Reller (Soph., Grand Forks, ND) walked to start the inning before a Ben Thoma (Soph., Clearbrook) single moved Reller to second base. After a groundout put runners on the corners, Scott Finberg (Jr., Stillwater) sent a bloop single into a left field scoring Reller from third base giving Minnesota Crookston a 1-0 lead. “Finberg is a guy that we can count on,” said UMC head coach Steve Gust. “He doesn’t always have the best numbers in terms of average or anything like that, but if he gets a pitch to hit he can be pretty good and he got a pitch and hit a nice line drive and if stays on top of it he can drive the baseball.” Nate Albercht was dialed in for the Golden Eagles on the mound tossing 5.2 scoreless innings keeping UMC in front 1-0 heading into the seventh inning. “That was a gutty effort (by Albrecht),” explained Gust. “He just keeps getting better and better. He’s a couple of years off Tommy John (surgery) and I think now within the last month or two he’s really starting to coming into his own and filling the zone up with all of his pitches. He really gave us a chance to win and competed hard today.” Augustana started the seventh inning a walk issued to Michael Svozil (Sr., Millbrae, CA) before a single by Ryan Nickel (Soph., Shoreview) went into right field where an errant throw by UMC’s right fielder allowed Svozil to score from third base tying the game at 1-1 in the top of the seventh inning. Augustana moved the leading run to third base but a poorly executed squeeze bunt allowed Minnesota Crookston catcher Ben Thoma (Soph., Clearbrook) to tag out the runner at home plate sending the game into the bottom of the seventh inning tied at 1-1. In the bottom of the seventh inning, the Golden Eagles were unable to capitalize off of a one-out walk to Reed Hjelle (Sr., East Grand Forks) as the game headed into extra innings tied at 1-1. After Louis Gerzin (Sr., Ely) threw a scoreless top of the eighth inning, the Golden Eagles went for a walk-off win in the bottom of the eighth. Bryce Jorgenson (Jr., Thunder Bay, Ontario) walked to lead off the inning before Griffin Fussy (R-Soph., Ham Lake) singled putting runners on first and second base. Reed Hjelle walked to load the bases for Brock Reller (Soph., Grand Forks, ND) who was hit by a pitch on his right forearm allowing the Jorgenson to score from third base as the Golden Eagles secured a 2-1 win in eight innings. “Gritty, but not pretty,” said Gust. “That’s kind of been our mantra here. It was in clear view, here in the first game, our guys weren’t worried about how they do things as long they find a way to get it done at the end and that’s what we did.”

G1	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	R	H	E
Augustana	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	9	0
UMC	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	5	3

Pitching	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Nate Albrecht – UMC	5.2	7	0	0	4	4
Dalton Grose – UMC	1.1	2	1	1	2	1
Louis Gerzin – UMC	1.0	0	0	0	1	1

For UMC
Scott Finberg – 1-2, rbi
Brock Reller – walk-off hit by pitch, rbi
Bryce Jorgenson – 1-3, scored winning run

GAME TWO – Riley Johnson (Jr., Champlin, MN) doubled to lead off the top of the third inning for Augustana before an error at shortstop allowed the Vikings’ next batter reached while Johnson scored giving the visitors a 1-0 lead after one inning. In the top of the fifth inning, Mitch Stroh (Fr., Elk River) was hit by a pitch before Riley Johnson singled to left centerfield putting runners on first and second base before Michael Svozil (Sr., Millbrae, CA) drove a triple to the left field fence scoring two runners and boosting Augustana’s lead to 3-0. Minnesota Crookston was unable to solve the Vikings’ pitching in game two as the Golden Eagles were limited to just three hits and shutout as Augustana earned a split with a 3-0 win in game two. “(Their pitcher) kept us off balance,” summarized Steve Gust. “He could throw that fastball and his breaking pitch for a strike at any time and we chased a lot of balls, but we’ve just got to be more disciplined at the plate and look for our pitch to hit and be on time with that, but he had us so off balance that we didn’t have much of a chance.”

“We just proved that we can compete with the conference’s best teams,” said Gust after spliiting with league-leader Augustana. “We knew that already coming in, but this validates it a little bit. We just need to get better as a team in every aspect and I like where we’re at if we do get better each game.”

Minnesota Crookston improves to 17-12 overall and 10-5 in NSIC play. The Golden Eagles return to the diamond on Saturday when they travel to Bismarck for a three-game series against the University of Mary beginning with a doubleheader at 1:00 p.m. Augustana improves to 23-10 overall and 16-3 in conference play.