The University of Minnesota Crookston Golden Eagle Baseball team lost the first game of a doubleheader 9-4, but bounced back to win the second game 6-1 to split a doubleheader with the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears played in Crookston. “I don’t think it was our best baseball by any means,” said UMC Coach Steve Gust. “We did some things well, especially in the second game to give ourselves a chance.”
GAME ONE –
Game one was played as a NSIC conference game and in a back and forth battle Concordia-St. Paul used a big seventh inning to win 9-4.
In the first inning, CSP recorded just one hit but had four guys reach base leading to an early run. Conner Richardson (Jr. Grand Forks, ND) started strong getting the first two hitters out, but an error prolonged the inning and the Golden Bears took advantage. The next hitter knocked a single into left field followed by two walks to give CSP a 1-0 lead.
UMC used some two-out offense of their own in the bottom of the first. After two quick outs, Mason Ruhlman (Sr. Algonac, MI) walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch. That allowed Brock Reller (Jr. Grand Forks, ND) to add onto his team-leading RBI total with an RBI single that snuck through the right side of the infield to tie the game at 1-1.
After a 1-2-3 inning from Richardson in the second inning, the Golden Eagles got right back into the scoring column with more two-out hitting. Again, after the first two batters were retired, Eli Jung (Jr. Dickinson, ND) lined a double into the right-center field gap and Landyn Swenson (Sr. Devils Lake, ND) brought around to score with an RBI single to grab a 2-1 lead after two innings.
The next three innings went smoothly for the pitchers as they each put up scoreless innings through the fifth despite a couple of baserunners. UMC used some solid defense behind Richardson to get outs on the bases including Richardson picking a runner off of first base, and a slick double play from Ruhlman.
Concordia-St. Paul took back the lead in the top of the sixth inning. After a quick first out, CSP got a single and a two-run homerun to right field to take a 3-2 lead. The next batter singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Richardson was able to work back from a 3-0 count to get a strike out for the second out. He was then relieved by Tyler Hegg (So. Thompson, ND) who came in and got a one pitch out to end the inning.
But, UMC answered right back in the bottom half of the inning. Jake Hjelle (Fr. East Grand Forks) led off the inning by reaching on an error. A hard hit groundball skipped over the shortstop’s glove and into shallow center field allowing Hjelle to hustle into second. Hjelle advanced to third on a long flyout to the wall. However, he was tagged out at home trying to score on a pitch that scooted away from the catcher on ball four of a Jung base on balls. The Golden Bears pitcher continued to miss the zone, leading to three more wild pitches advancing Jung all the way around to score and tie the game at 3-3. “We have some good hitters throughout the line up and we are capable of changing the score in a matter of seconds,” said Coach Gust.
The Golden Bears took the lead again in the seventh with a crooked number. A leadoff walk got to second on a stolen base and advanced to third when the throw to second reached the outfield. After Hegg got a looking strikeout, the next batter sent a ball right back up the middle that grazed off the glove of Hegg on the mound and snuck into center field to drive in the runner from third. After a walk, another Golden Eagles error allowed the second run of the inning to score and put runners on first and third. The next Golden Bears batter hit a sacrifice fly to left to drive in another. The next two hitters reached on a walk and a single to load the bases. A wild pitch brought in another run and that was followed by a two-RBI single. Garrett Hohn (Sr. Wausau, WI) was brought in to relieve Hegg. He walked the first batter he faced but got out the next hitter to line out and end the inning, but not before the Golden Bears scored six runs on three hits to take a 9-3 lead. “The story of the game was the big inning… there were some plays we should have made and we never made them,” said UMC head coach Steve Gust. “You can’t give an NSIC team six runs in one inning and expect to win baseball games. We fell behind in counts, we had a couple of walks, a couple of errors and veteran teams like Concordia-St. Paul will take advantage of things like that.”
UMC quickly got a run back in the bottom of the seventh with a Will Zimmerman (Sr. Park River, ND) leadoff homerun to left field to cut the deficit to 9-4. Reller got a one-out single and eventually got to second on a wild pitch, but he was left stranded in scoring position.
Both teams went scoreless in the eighth inning. UMC got a 1-2-3 inning from Hohn, depsite giving up a walk. The Golden Eagles threatened to score getting to runners on with one out and runners on first and third with two outs, but they were unable to cut into the lead.
Both teams were also held scoreless in the ninth inning which gave CSP the victory in game one. “They can pitch it with the best in the NSIC and we knew it. We need to do a better job with two strikes and limit some of those strikeouts and make adjustments at least, and we didn’t do that,” explained Coach Gust.
FOR THE GAME ONE BOX SCORE, CLICK HERE.
GAME TWO –
Game two was scheduled as a seven-inning, non-conference game and UMC was able to start strong on their way to splitting the doubleheader and winning the weekend series with a 6-1 win.
UMC’s offense found their stride in the first couple of innings. After Jake Osowski (Fr. East Grand Forks) pitched a smooth first inning, the offense gave him a quick four runs of support. Ben Bryant (So. Fargo, ND) led off the inning by reaching second on an error and advancing to third on a wild pitch. Reller collected the RBI when he also reached base on an error. Ruhlman walked to put runners on first and second. Hjelle put another run on the board when he knocked a single to left field. He subsequently stole second to get two runners in scoring position. With two outs, Parker Stroh (Fr. Grand Forks, ND) came up with a big hit to score both runners and make it a 4-0 game after one inning. “Our guys fight back and we have seen it all year. When we have a setback, we try to have a comeback and we did that,” said Coach Gust. “That doesn’t surprise me because we have done it a lot this year. We had some big at bats and had our big time players come up with some nice at bats.”
After another inning of Osowski retiring CSP in order, UMC continued their momentum scoring twice more. The first three batters reached base for the Golden Eagles. Swenson walked, Bryant singled him to third, and Zimmerman put an RBI single into right field and advanced to second on the throw. With two runners in scoring position, Reller came up with another RBI on a groundout to make it 6-0. UMC loaded the bases after a hit by pitch and a walk but a double play ended the inning.
Osowski continued his great pitching with another 1-2-3 inning adding in a couple of strikeouts in the third. UMC had a runner thrown out at home on a groundball and then loaded the bases in the third but they also came away scoreless.
Osowski finally surrendered a couple of hits in the fourth but he worked out of danger and left the two runners stranded to keep CSP scoreless through four innings. UMC also did not score in the fourth which kept the score at 6-0.
The Golden Bears got on the board in the fifth. A leadoff single got to second on a wild pitch. The runner was advanced to third on a groundout and scored after an error. Osowski recovered nicely, with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning and keep it at 6-1.
UMC did not score in the fifth inning despite getting a couple of runners on base.
Both teams were scoreless in the final two innings giving UMC the win in the game and in the series. Osowski got the victory going six innings and allowing just three hits and the one unearned run while striking out eight and walking none.
“The bottom line is did we want Concordia to come in here and split or did we want to win a series. Any team can beat any team at anytime but the true sign of a champion is if you can win series,” said Coach Steve Gust. “It wasn’t our best baseball, but we can’t be too disappointed winning three of the four games this weekend against a good team.”
FOR THE GAME TWO BOX SCORE, CLICK HERE.
UMC is now 16-2 overall and 11-2 in NSIC conference play. Weather permitting, they will have a big doubleheader coming up on Tuesday against Minnesota State-Mankato at UMC starting at 1:30.
Concordia-St. Paul moves to 9-14 overall and 5-12 in conference play.
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