ST. CLOUD, MINN. -- With senior
Keenahn Coyle dominating on the mound and big hits from Jared Binsfield and
Zane Butts, the University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team (8-11, 4-11 NSIC) earned a road win over St. Cloud State (8-9, 6-6 NSIC) on Saturday.
The story of the game was Coyle (1-0), a senior from Sioux Falls, who earned his first win of the season in four appearances and in his second start. Coyle allowed just five hits with one run in seven innings. He walked just three batters and struck out four as he threw 95 pitches. It was Coyle's longest outing since May 3, 2019 when he worked eight innings in a win over Concordia St. Paul.
Alex Krout finished up for USF as he allowed just two hits and a run in throwing 29 pitches to earn his first save.
At the plate, Jared Binsfield had a hit and two RBI and
Zane Butts added two hits and an RBI. Also for USF,
Kyle Gulbrandson, a senior from Sioux Falls, had three hits while
Ryan Bernardy had a hit and run scored. Gulbrandson is now 8-of-16 this season and is hitting .500. In addition, freshman
Tyler Cate had a hit and two runs scored as he is hitting .333.
"It was a great team win today. Keenahn (Coyle) pitched great and kept a good offense off balance all day," said USF Head Coach
Grant Hieb. "Then Alex (Krout) came in and did what he's done all year since we moved him to the bullpen. Our offense did just enough to push some runs across and get a W in the series opener. Gulbrandson was big for us on the offensive side. He led off an inning with a double, competing with two strikes and even executing a hit-and-run. It was good to see our guys complete for a full nine innings. If we continue to complete like that, good things will happen," he said.
USF opened the scoring in the second inning when Bernardy singled and later scored on Butt's two-out RBI single to center field.
In the sixth inning,
Connor King opened with a walk and advanced to second on a base hit from Cate.
Grant Lung reached on an error, which plated King. With one out, Binsfield had an RBI sac but as USF took a 3-0 lead. After SCSU cut the lead to 3-1, USF added insurance in the eighth inning. Cate reached on an error and scored on Binsfield's RBI double to left field with two out. In the ninth inning, Tate Wallat homered for SCSU to cut the lead to 4-2 but Krout struck out out Caleb Marquez with two runners on base (reached on errors) as USF earned the win and ended a four-game NSIC slide.
USF and SCSU will play a doubleheader at noon and 2 pm on Sunday in St. Cloud, Minn.
