BISMARCK, N.D. – Dominant pitching has a way of curing baseball ills. On Wednesday, the University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team (14-22, 11-15 NSIC) recorded back-to-back shutouts for the first time in 10 years in a road sweep (5-0, 14-0) of the University of Mary (9-28, 5-23 NSIC) in NSIC play at Municipal Park.

Senior Zak Wallner tossed his first career shutout, allowing just six hits in the opener, a 5-0 decision. In the second game, sophomore Dan Johnson recorded the third shutout of his career with a two-hit blanking of the Marauders in a seven-inning game ended by run rule. The two victories by USF snapped a seven-game losing skein.

Wallner (2-1) and Johnson (3-2) recorded back-to-back shutouts for the first time since USF defeated Doane, 4-0, 7-0 in 2007. In total the two pitchers combined to allow just eight hits across 14 innings with 11 strikeouts and six walks. U-Mary combined to hit .178 against USF today. Wallner dropped his ERA to 4.38 with his second win in three decisions. Johnson lowered his ERA to 2.87 with his third win of the season.

"We had a really good day on the mound and at the plate," said USF head baseball coach Grant Hieb, who team will host Upper Iowa in a pair of NSIC doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday at the Birdcage in Sioux Falls. "Both Zak (Wallner) and Dan (Johnson) threw really well. It was good to see both of them have success. We really needed it and they stepped up. I also thought we had good at bats and were able to put up some good numbers," he said.

USF's offense was led by Josh Rehwaldt who had four hits in eight at bats with his fourth home run of the season and four RBI. Austin Richey added four hits in six at bats with two RBI. Both Richey and Rehwaldt scored three times. Rob Johnson, who ranks second in the league in steals, added three more to his total and has 17 in 18 attempts this season. He collected three hits in six at bats. In total, USF had 10 stolen bases in 10 attempts while hitting .367 with 22 hits, 19 runs and five extra base hits. In addition, Connor Merriam started his 100th straight game at catcher in the opener before sitting out game two.

G1 – USF 5 Mary 0 (7 innings)
Wallner tossed his first career shutout and Rehwaldt hit a home run as USF recorded a 5-0 victory over U-Mary in the opener.  

Wallner, who threw 99 pitches in seven innings, moved to 2-1 on the season by tossing a six-hitter. He struck out five batters and walked four in his best outing of the season. For the fifth time this season, Wallner worked six innings or more.

The offense was led by Rehwaldt, who had two hits in four trips, including his fourth home run of the season and eighth of his career.  Brent Jarvis added a base hit, RBI and stolen base while Merriam had an RBI double.  

The Cougars built an early 2-0 lead as Merriam supplied an RBI double to plate Richey, who had reached by an infield hit. Then, Merriam came home on a Jarvis single.
In the 3rd inning, USF extended its lead to 4-0 after Rehwaldt slugged his fourth home run of the season and Matthew Minnick scored on a sacrifice fly by Anthony Lopez.  In the fifth, USF pulled off a double steal with Jarvis swiping second and Peterson stealing home as the lead was extended to 5-0.

G2 – USF 14 Mary 0 (7 innings)
In game two, Dan Johnson threw a seven-inning, two-hit shutout and USF tied a season high in runs scored in a 14-0 victory over U-Mary which ended by the run rule.

In seven innings, Johnson threw exactly 100 pitches while recording six strikeouts with just two walks. On offense, USF, led by Richey's three hits and two RBI, had 14 runs on 15 hits. Rehwaldt added two hits, two runs scored and three RBI. In his first career start Jack Revier had three hits, a stolen base, two runs scored. In support of his brother's stout pitching effort, Rob Johnson had two hits, two runs scored and an RBI along with three stolen bases. The Cougars had a season-high eight steals in the game.

The Cougars took a 1-0 lead in game two as Jack Revier's RBI ground out plated Richey in second inning. Just an inning later, Cougars add two more for a 3-0 lead. Jarvis doubled, stole third and scored on Rehwaldt's sacrifice fly for a 2-0 advantage.

After Rob Johnson walked, he stole second and third and scored on Richey's RBI double.  In the fourth inning, USF put five runs on the board for an 8-0 advantage.  Peterson had an RBI double to start the rally, which was followed by Rehwaldt's two-run single and a RBI ground out by Minnick, along with an RBI single from Richey.

USF finished off the scoring with a five-run seventh inning, including a two-run single from Ryan Bernardy and RBI from Rehwaldt and Revier.