Game 1 Box
Game 2 Box

BISMARCK, N.D. - Southwest Minnesota State University rallied for a 9-7 victory in eight innings over the University of Mary in game two to earn a split of a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference doubleheader on Sunday in Bismarck, N.D.  Mary won the opener 1-0 behind a solo home run in the first inning.

The victory in game two was a historic one for SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard, who recorded his 348th career win at SMSU, becoming the program's all-time leader in victories.  Now in his 13th season at SMSU, Blanchard has a career record of 348-241-1.  He surpasses Jim Denevan, who had 347 victories in 21 seasons as head coach.

SMSU concludes the regular season 26-11 overall and finishes fourth in the 13-team Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference with a 16-10 record and a .615 winning percentage.  Winona State finished just percentage points ahead of SMSU in the standings with a NSIC record of 20-12 for a .625 percentage.  SMSU had six conference games canceled, including four versus last place Northern State.  Overall, SMSU had 12 games canceled during the regular season from March 25 to April 6.

SMSU will now start the postseason this upcoming Thursday, May 2, at the six-team NSIC Tournament in St. Cloud, Minn.  SMSU is the tournament's fourth seed and will open play versus third seed Winona State starting at 7 p.m. at Faber Field in St. Cloud, Minn.  SMSU and WSU split four games against each other this season.

In Sunday's second game, SMSU jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single by Matt Bauer, a run-scoring double by Derek West and an RBI base hit by Doug Stearns.

Mary rallied with a six-run second inning off of Mustang starter Mark Bendzick and reliever Aaron Rochleau, before SMSU mounted its own rally in the fourth inning to tie the game scoring three runs with two outs.

Jake Munsch led off the fourth with a double and after a strike out and ground out, Greg Laughlin doubled to score Munsch for the inning's first run.  After Andrew Kinney was hit by a pitch, Bauer stroked a two-run double to tie the game at 6-6.

The Marauders then regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth off of SMSU reliever Nate Dickhausen, plating one run on three hits.

SMSU had just one base runner in the fifth and sixth innings and was down to their final out in the seventh inning, before taking advantage of wild UMary pitching to tie the game.  Stearns walked with two outs and pinch-runner Josh Wendland moved to second on a walk to Scott Rambow.  Munsch was then hit by a pitch to load the bases and move the tying run just 90 feet away.  Josh Nolan stepped to the plate and during his at bat, UMary pitcher Blaze Culliton threw a wild pitch allowing Wendland to score and tie the game at 7-7.

After a scoreless bottom of the seventh, the SMSU offense came alive in the eighth inning as Derick Swenson was hit by a pitch to start the inning and advanced to third on an infield single by Laughlin.  Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch and Kinney gave SMSU the lead back with a sac fly to score Swenson.  SMSU added another run in the inning as Bobby Zellman hit a run-scoring fielder's choice to score Laughlin and push the lead to 9-7. 

Curtis Smith, who making his first relief appearance of the season, allowed a one-out single in the eighth, but struck out the final two Marauder hitters to seal the victory.  Smith pitched the final two innings and picked up the win to move his record to 7-1 on the season.

SMSU cracked 13 hits in the game with Bauer finishing 3-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored, while Laughlin was also 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored.  West, Stearns and Munsch each collected two hits for the SMSU offense, which also had four hit by pitches in the game and walked four times.

In game one on Sunday, Mustang starter Brad Haag pitched the best game of his career at SMSU allowing just a solo home run in the first inning but was the hard-luck loser as the Mustang offense could muster only three hits.  Haag allowed four hits in the contest while striking out eight and walking two.

SMSU had runners reach second base in the second, third and fourth innings but couldn't come up with the clutch hit to tie the game.  Munsch had two of SMSU's three hits while Kinney had the other hit with a lead off double in the fourth inning.

2009 NSIC Tournament, May 7-10, Faber Field, St. Cloud, Minn. 
No. 2 Minnesota State vs. No. 5 Upper Iowa, 11 a.m.
No. 1 Wayne State vs. No. 6 Augustana, 3:30 p.m.
No. 3 Winona State vs. No. 4 Southwest Minnesota State, 7 p.m.