WAYNE NEB. – The University of Sioux Falls Baseball (13-27, 13-17 NSIC) Team lost a pair of high-scoring games to Wayne State (17-21, 15-13 NSIC), 9-5, 12-5, in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference action on Saturday.

With the setbacks to the Wildcats, USF remained in ninth place in the NSIC standings. The Cougars, which have lost three straight games, sit just behind eighth place Upper Iowa at 14-19 and 12-15. USF, which has six games to play in the regular season, and Wayne State will play another doubleheader on Sunday at noon and 2:30 p.m. in Wayne, Neb.

Six USF players had two hits in the doubleheader, including freshman Ryan Meyer, Brent Jarvis, Dylan Gavin, Josh Rehwaldt, Connor Merriam and Grant Lung. Merriam also slugged his first grand slam of his career in the game two loss. Merriam hit his fifth home of the season and 16th of his career. While the USF pitching staff struggled (21 runs in 14 innings with 13 walks and 13 strikeouts), reliever Spencer Dokken had a solid day. In two appearances, he had three strikeouts and didn't allow a hit in 2 1/3 innings.

Game 1 – Wayne State 9 Sioux Falls 5
In the opener, the Wildcats put together a seven-run second inning and defeated USF as WSC pitcher Aaron Ras improved to 5-1 to win the high-scoring affair. USF, which rallied late but fell short of a comebacker, was hurt by their defense as three errors led to six unearned runs.

The Cougars opened the game by loading the bases with no outs and tallied an early run as Lung scored on a walk by Jarvis for a 1-0 lead. After USF starter Brandon Roesler was able to work out of a bases loaded no out jam without WSC scoring a run in the bottom of the first inning, the Wildcats put seven runs on the board in the second inning, helped by a pair of USF errors.

Roesler (3-3), who allowed six hits but just one earned run, worked two innings with two strikeouts and suffered his third loss of the season. He was replaced by freshman Anthony Reese, who worked 2 2/3 innings and allowed just one run on two hits with five walks and a strikeout. Mitchell Lyall allowed three hits and a run before Dokken closed with one inning of shutout relief.

After USF opened the sixth with a pair of hits to Jarvis and Merriam as well as a walk to Meyer, Ras was lifted for reliever Spencer Johnson. Gabe Shemwell followed with a sacrifice fly as USF cut the deficit to 8-2. Then Lung singled to load the bases again which was followed by a two-run double by Gavin, who plated both Merriam and Meyer as USF drew within 8-4. After an RBI ground by Rehwaldt plated Lung, the Cougars trailed, 8-5.

WSC had a pair of doubles from Alex Logelin and a triple by leading hitter Bryce Bisenius. Ras allowed four runs on five hits with five walks and seven strikeouts. Lawson Zenner earned his fifth save by ending USF's rally in the bottom of the sixth inning. Zenner retired the final two batters in the sixth inning and threw a perfect seventh inning for the save.

GAME 2 – Wayne State 12 Sioux Falls 5
The Wildcats swept the doubleheader by rallying against USF with 12 unanswered runs and a 12-5 victor. WSC scored all 12 runs from the third through seventh innings.
Bisenius led WSC with four hits and five RBI. Tanner Simons proved two hits and two RBs while Peyton Barnes scored three times. Merriam led the USF offense with his grand slam in the first inning. Meyer had a pair of hits for USF.

After USF scored five in the first inning, WSC starter Hunter Wienhoff settled down and finished with a complete game. He allowed just two hits over the last eight innings of the game while registering six strikeouts and three walks in the game. Wienhoff, who improved to 4-3, threw 123 pitches.

USF starter Alex Loosbrock worked 2 2/3 innings before being replaced by Christian Lazar, who struck out Alex Logelin of WSC to end the Wildcat threat with two on base. Loosbrock had four strikeouts and four walks in his stint. Matt Graham (1/3, three runs, hit, two walks) replaced Lazar but retired just one WSC hitter. Stuart Maes entered the game and worked 1 2/3 innings, allowing two hits and two runs. Jackson Olson also worked 1 2/3 innings and allowed seven hits and five runs with two strikeouts. Dokken finished up for the Cougars, going 1 1/3 innings with two strikeouts and not permitting a hit.

With one out in the first inning, Gavin and Rehwaldt singled with Minnick's single plating Gavin for a 1-0 lead. After a base hit from Jarvis, Merriam hit a grand slam to provide USF with a 5-0 lead in the first inning.

WSC answered the USF's early surge by scoring 12 runs from the third through the seventh innings for a 12-5 advantage.

The Wildcats put up a pair of runs in the third inning with a sacrifice fly by Tanner Simons and a run-scoring double by Besenius as USF's lead was cut to 5-2. In the fourth inning, WSC totaled three runs. Simons had another RBI and Besenius added two more to tie the game. WSC took the lead in the fifth inning with two runs and added five more in the seventh for a 12-5 lead. Dokken ended the WSC seventh-inning burst by striking out Andrew Hanson.