Box Score
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Southwest Minnesota State's Adam Schrader recorded a school record 15 strikeouts and Josh Nolan drove in a career-high five RBI to lead SMSU to a 9-6 victory over Winona State in the first round of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament in St. Cloud, Minn.
Southwest Minnesota State, the No. 4 seed, will play No. 5 seed Upper Iowa on Friday at 7 p.m. at Faber Field in St. Cloud. Winona State now plays No. 1 seed Wayne State at 3:30 p.m.
Schrader's 15 strikeouts broke the previous record of 14 set by Dean Champine in 1973.
SMSU, ranked fifth in the NCAA regional rankings, improves to 27-11 overall, while WSU drops to 29-20.
SMSU opened the scoring in the top of the first inning as Derick Swenson lead off with a hit by pitch and advanced to third one batter later on a single to right field by Greg Laughlin. Following a strike out by Andrew Kinney, Derek West drove home Swenson with an infield single to give SMSU a 1-0 lead.
The Mustangs extended the lead to 3-0 in the top of the second as Andy Williamson reached on an error to lead off the inning and then stole second base. Josh Nolan then smacked an RBI double down the left field line to score Williamson to make the score 2-0. Following a strikeout and fly out, Laughlin came through with a clutch two-out single to score Nolan and push the lead to 3-0.
Joe Kley put WSU on the board in the second inning belting a solo home run over the right field wall to trim the lead to 3-1.
Following a scoreless third inning, SMSU added to the lead in the fourth inning as Jake Munsch lead off with a double and scored on a double by Nolan. Nolan then came around to score two batters later on a two-out run-scoring single by Swenson to make the score 5-1 in favor of SMSU.
SMSU continued to add to the lead in the fifth inning using the long ball. Andrew Kinney led off the frame with his team-leading 14th home run of the season. Derek West and Matt Bauer then followed with singles and both came around to score later in the inning on a two-out blast by Nolan over the left field wall for his fourth homer of the season to push the lead to 9-1.
Mustang starting pitcher Adam Schrader was outstanding in the middle innings, retiring 12 of 14 WSU batters from the second to sixth innings, but the Warriors broke through in the bottom of the sixth scoring four runs with two outs to cut the SMSU lead to 9-5.
Scharder held tough in the final three innings allowing just two base runners to help seal the victory for SMSU. He finished the game allowing five hits, five earned runs, while walking three in pitching his third complete game of the season.
Nolan finished 3 for 4 with five RBI and three runs scored, while West was 4 for 4 and with an RBI.
