MANKATO, Minn. – Despite solid work on the mound from starters
Zak Wallner and
Dan Johnson, the University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team (12-18, 9-11 NSIC) was stymied by the league's top pitching staff as #21 Minnesota State (26-5, 21-1 NSIC) took two from the Cougars, 2-1 and 4-0 in NSIC action on Tuesday afternoon.
In game one, the Mavericks scored an unearned run in the sixth inning and held off USF behind its ace Dylan Roach to win, 2-1. In game two, Mitchell Bauer scattered 10 USF hits, including three by
Matthew Minnick, to record a 4-0 victory. On the day, USF finished with just one run on 12 hits. However, they allowed just three total earned runs as
Zak Wallner,
Dan Johnson and
Stuart Maes provided strong efforts on the mound.
USF fell to 9-11 in league play and now heads to Minot State for a doubleheader on Thursday and Friday. The games were originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday but possible rainy conditions on Saturday forced the move up a day. The doubleheader on Thursday is set to start at 1:30 p.m. with a noon start on Friday.
G1 – MSU 2 USF 1 (7 innings)
Despite a strong pitching outing from
Zak Wallner and
Josh Rehwaldt's second home run of the season, the Cougars dropped a 2-1 decision to MSU. In a game that included just six hits, Dylan Roach of MSU outdueled Wallner to pick up his sixth win in six decisions.
MSU scored single runs in the second and sixth inning as they registered just four hits and one earned run off Wallner, who fell to 1-1 on the season. In his 69 pitches, Wallner walked a hitter and recorded a strikeout. Roach recorded 11 strikeouts and gave up two hits. MSU's game-winning run in the sixth inning was unearned as Tyler Berg reached on an error and scored on a sacrifice with one out.
USF's offense was led by
Josh Rehwaldt, who hit his second home run of the season and sixth of his career.
Rob Johnson also had a hit for the Cougars. MSU also scored in the second inning when Dylan Dresel singled, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Noah Bluth.
G2 - MSU 4 USF 0 (9 innings)
Despite three hits from Minnick and Johnson's second straight strong outing on the hill, USF fell to MSU, 4-0. MSU's Mitchell Bauer (5-0), who had six strikeouts and two walks, moved to 5-0 by throwing a complete game. He allowed 10 hits and escaped a bases loaded one out jam in the fifth inning.
Johnson (2-2) dropped his second decision of the season despite allowing just four hits and one earned run (three total runs) in 5 2/3 innings. He had five strikeouts and three walks in throwing 89 pitches. Maes finished for USF, allowing two hits and a run in 2 1/3 innings of work. Minnick had three singles in four at bats to lead USF's offense.
Josh Rehwaldt added a pair of bases hits as did catcher
Connor Merriam, who was making his 84th straight start at catcher.
After Bauer and Johnson each threw four shutout innings, MSU scored a run in the fifth inning when Josh Wenzel's RBI single plated Eric Peterson. MSU added two more runs in the sixth inning but both were unearned as USF committed a pair of errors. The Mavericks finished off the scoring with a run in the eighth inning.
