ST. CLOUD, Minn. – The University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team had a rally fall short as their season ended in a 6-4 loss to Minnesota State in the elimination round of the NSIC Baseball Tourney on Thursday.
The #8 seeded Cougars, which dropped a 10-1 decision to top seed Minnesota-Duluth in the first round on Thursday, ended the season 21-30-1 with the 21 wins the most in the program's D2 history. In addition, USF, which played in the NSIC Tournament for the first time, also set a pair of hitting records. Those marks included setting the hits record at 550 while freshman first baseman Josh Rehwaldt, who finished with a .367 batting average, set a new mark with 17 doubles.
Key to the Cougar's being able to rally and stay in the game after falling behind 6-0 against MSU, was the pitching effort of junior Zachary Miller, who tossed four-hit ball over seven innings. Miller finished with four strikeouts and six walks. Chris Thompson shut down the Mavericks in the ninth inning with two strikeouts after MSU had runners at second and third. Taking the loss for the first time this year was sophomore Dylan Gavin, who was charged with all six runs as his record fell to 8-1.
Down 6-0, the Cougars scored a run in the fourth inning, two more in the fifth inning and another in the eighth inning while keeping MSU off the board after the second inning.
Senior infielder Ed Reichenbach led the Cougars' offense with two hits in three trips, including his team-leading seventh homerun of the season. He also doubled and walked while driving in a pair of runs. As a result, Reichenbach, who finished the season hitting .311 with a team-leading 42 RBI, ended his USF career by reaching base in 37 consecutive games. Sophomore Connor Merriam, who is the only player on the USF team to start all 52 games, had two hits in four at bats. The Cougars finished with nine hits. Both Rob Johnson and Matthew Minnick had run scoring hits.
Picking up the win for MSU was Dalton Roach, who improved to 5-3 as MSU is now 34-14 on the season. The Mavericks advance to face the loser of the semifinal game between #3 St. Cloud State and #2 Augustana at 10 a.m. tomorrow.
MSU opened the scoring with an unearned run as Kyle Toth, who reached by error, scored on a two-out hit by Taylor Branstad for a 1-0 lead. The Mavericks added to the lead as Josh Wenzel had a three-run triple for a 4-0 lead in the second inning. Then, Eric Peterson doubled in Wenzel as the lead drew to 5-0 in second inning. Later in the inning, Peterson advanced home on a stolen base by Branstad.
In the third, USF had hits from Merriam and Brent Griffing-Jarvis but a run-saving catch on a drive by Josh Rehweldt by MSU kept the Mavs in front 6-0.
In the fifth inning, USF received back-to-back doubles by Merriam and Rob Johnson which brought the score to 6-1. In the bottom of the sixth inning, USF put together a two-run rally as a leadoff double from Rehwaldt and a walk to Gavin set things up. Reichenbach ripped an RBI double. With one out, Minnick smacked an RBI single as USF drew within, 6-3. However, MSU pulled off a slick double play to end the rally. Reichenbach hit a homerun over the centerfield fence in the eighth inning as the Cougars cut the lead to 6-4 but couldn't draw any closer as the best season for USF at DII came to a close.
Notes: As a team, USF ended the season hitting .324 with 365 runs scored, school reccord 550 hits, including 137 extra base hits. Among those hits were 39 homeruns, led by Reichenbach with seven and Minnick with six. A total of 10 USF players who started games this year hit .300 or better. The Cougars finished with a team .397 OBP and a .463 slugging mark. Rehwaldt had a team high and school record 17 doubles. Rob Johnson and Rehwaldt led USF with 21 multi-hit games while Rehwaldt led the Cougars with 12 multi-RBI games. Minnick had 15 multi-hit games and 32 in his career while totaling 10 multi-RBI contests. Brent Griffing-Jarvis had an eight-game hitting streak to end the season and totaled 14 multi-hit games. USF will lose just two seniors to graduation, including Reichenbach and game one starter Patrick Anderson, who finished 2-5.
