ST. CLOUD, MINN. – The University of Sioux Falls Baseball Team (8-13, 4-13 NSIC) dropped a pair of games to St. Cloud State (10-9, 8-6 NSIC) on Sunday (April 11) on the road in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.
"We had some opportunities in game two but just missed," said USF Head Coach
Grant Hieb, whose team will face Southwest Minnesota State in a mid-week NSIC doubleheader on April 14 at in Marshall, Minn., with start times of 1:30/3:30 pm. "We will continue to try and improve as we gain more and more experience. We will look to rebound this week," he said.
Game 1 – St. Cloud State 9 Sioux Falls 1
In the opener on Sunday, St. Cloud State had a strong pitching outing from Trevor Koenig and used a six-run second inning to pick up a 9-1 win over Sioux Falls.
The Cougars scored a single run in the sixth inning as
Grant Lung's RBI base hit plated
Ryan Meyer. USF finished with four hits, including a double by
Zane Butts.
Ryan Meyer had a base hit and stolen base. Jared Binsfield recorded the other hit for USF.
On the mound,
Caleb Ditmarson (1-2) took the loss for USF as he allowed seven runs on five hits in 1 1/3 innings while walking three.
Jake Haugen allowed three hits and a run with two strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings.
Anthony Reese allowed three hits and an unearned run in his two innings on the mound.
Matt Quade had two hits and three RBI while Caleb Marquez had three RBI to lead SCSU. Trevor Koenig (1-3) allowed three hits and a run across six innings with eight strikeouts in throwing 81 pitches. Mack Larson finished for SCSU with one inning of one-hit relief.
Game 2 – St. Cloud State 5 Sioux Falls 3 (9 innings)
In the second game, St. Cloud State scored single runs in the fourth and fifth inning to break from a tie game and earn a 5-3 win over Sioux Falls.
The Cougars had a solid, complete-game effort from junior right hander
Matt Graham, who allowed five runs on six hits in eight innings on the hill. He had three walks and three strikeouts while throwing 111 pitches.
SCSU's Jack Habeck (5-0) earned the victory in relief of Tommy Thompson. After Thompson threw the first four innings and allowed three hits and three runs while striking out two hitters, Habeck took over and did not allow a hit or run in 1 2/3 innings with a pair of strikeouts. Luke Tupy earned the save with 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief.
USF collected four hits including single and run scored by
Connor King, single by
Tyler Cate, single and RBI from
Trey Hubers and a base hit from
Tyler Blackburn.
Ryan Bernardy had an RBI and run scored and
Zane Butts also had an RBI.
The Cougars opened the scoring with a run on two hits in the first inning. King and Cate singled and Bernardy's sacrifice fly brought home King. Bernardy now has a team-high 21 RBI.
In the second inning, SCSU scored three runs to take a 3-1 lead. USF answered in the fourth inning as
Grant Lung, Bernardy and Jared Binsfield walked to load the bases. Then, Hubers was hit by a pitch to plate Lung. After that, Butts tied the game at 3-3 with a sacrifice fly to score Bernardy.
SCSU broke the tie in the fourth inning and then added a run in the fifth frame on a home run by Tate Wallat. USF had scoring opportunities in the seventh and ninth innings but did not produce the timely base hit.
