The University of Minnesota Crookston (UMC) Baseball team ended their season with a 10-0 loss against Northern State in an NSIC Tournament game played at Dick Putz Field in St. Cloud.
Minnesota Crookston’s Nate Albrecht (Sr., Wahpeton, ND) took the ball in this elimination game for the Golden Eagles and escaped some first inning trouble with a ground ball to his shortstop starting a double-play sending the game into the bottom of the opening inning. Minnesota Crookston’s bats tried solving, with limited success, Northern State’s top pitcher Luke Chevalier (R-Sr., Barnstable, MA). Chevalier was dominant keeping UMC completely off the base paths through his first six innings as his offense built him a lead to protect. “I don’t know if people in our area know how good this league is,” explained UMC head coach Steve Gust. “(Luke Chevalier) is a guy who could get paid to pitch for a living. For us its a little bit more difficult for us to get them because we don’t have the money some of these schools have or some of the facilities, but those guys are good. Obviously, we could’ve done some things differently at the plate, but hey, you’ve got to tip your cap to this guy.” Justin Barreneche (Sr., Hialeah, FL) opened the third inning with a one-out single for Northern State before stealing second base and advancing to third on a passed ball. Hayden Houts (R-Jr., Owen, WI) hit a ground ball to shortstop with one out in the inning scoring Barreneche and giving the Wolves a 1-0 lead after three innings. Northern State scored its second run of the game in the subsequent inning after Alec Lee (Jr., Grand Island, NE) hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield scoring Chad Hinkle (Jr., Rosemount) and giving the Wolves a 2-0 lead after four innings. Northern State added another run to their lead with a sacrifice fly to centerfield in the sixth inning hit by Hayden Hall (Sr., Mountain Home, AR) scoring Spencer Sarringar (R-Fr., Pierre, SD) putting NSU in front 3-0 into the seventh inning. In the top of the seventh, the Wolves put the game firmly out of reach for Minnesota Crookston. With runners at second and third base, Spencer Sarrignar drove a double to the right-centerfield gap plating two and giving Northern State a 5-0 lead. A sacrifice fly to left field later in the inning from Hayden Hall plated the Wolves’ sixth run of the day giving NSU a 6-0 lead into the seventh-inning stretch. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, Reed Hjelle (Sr., East Grand Forks) hit a single into centerfield becoming UMC’s first baserunner of the game and ending Luke Chevalier’s perfect game bid just seven outs away from history. Northern State’s offense continued to add to its already comfortable lead with three more runs in the eighth inning as the Wolves kept their season alive while ending Minnesota Crookston’s with a 10-0 win. “What we’ve done this year is nothing short of incredible,” said summarized Gust. “With the amount of seniors we lost off last years team, and we lost our top pitcher to the MLB Draft, and we lost a few more guys to early graduations and injuries. For these guys to do what they did this year, I’m sure many people realize, although I’m sure some people do, it was nothing short of awesome. We weren’t the most talented team. We were probably, in the scale of all the NSIC teams somewhere in the lower to middle as far as talent, but we busted our butts every day. We played as a team. We did the little things to keep us in games for the most part. We found ways to win a lot of baseball games. To win 28 baseball games in little, tiny Crookston, Minnesota for the University of Minnesota Crookston against some of these bigger school for our guys what they did this year was absolutely incredible.”
Minnesota Crookston concludes its season with a 28-21 record, setting a new program record for wins in a season. Northern State improves to 26-24 and awaits the loser of Augustana and Minot State in the next round of the elimination bracket on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Northern State | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 10 | 13 | 0 |
| UMC | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Pitching | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Luke Chevalier – Northern State | 9.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 |
| Nate Albrecht – UMC | 5.1 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Louis Gerzin – UMC | .2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
| Dalton Grose – UMC | 1.2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 |
| Conner Richardson – UMC | 1.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
For UMC
Reed Hjelle 1-3
Landyn Swenson 1-4
For Northern State
Mikey Adams 4-4, double, rbi
Justin Barreneche 2-5, double, run
Hayden Houts 2-4, rbi, 2 runs
Dakota Stilson 1-2, double
Spencer Sarringar 2-5, double, 2 rbi
Hayden Hall 0-2, 2 rbi
Spenser Larson 1-1, double, 2 rbi
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