BOX SCORE
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Minnesota State, ranked No. 24 nationally and No. 2 in the NCAA Central Region, took advantage of two unearned runs to earn a 6-5 victory over Southwest Minnesota State in the championship game of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament in St. Cloud, Minn.
MSU, the tournament's No. 1 seed and regular season NSIC champions, will receive the NSIC's automatic bid for the NCAA Central Region tournament to be held next week.
SMSU, the tournament's No. 5 seed, lost its opening round game of the tournament on Wednesday, but won three straight games to advance to its seventh NSIC tournament championship game. SMSU has now finished second three times.
The Mustangs, ranked eighth in the Central Region rankings, drops to 29-18 overall. The 29 victories are the fifth most in school history. The top six teams advance to the NCAA Region Tournament. SMSU defeated No. 7 Minnesota Duluth and No. 5 St. Cloud State this week, but the Mustangs were not selected as one of the six teams selected for the Central Region Tournament announced on Sunday evening. SMSU made the program's first-ever NCAA appearance last season.
Senior Brad Haag, pitching on two days rest, started for the Mustangs and suffered the loss, pitching 3.2 innings, allowing eight hits, six runs, four earned runs, while striking out four. Nate Dickhausen pitched an outstanding 4.1 innings in relief, allowing just two hits with one strikeout.
Derick Swenson and Tyler Jendro each finished with two hits to lead SMSU, while Andrew Kinney added two RBI.
SMSU jumped on the board first as Derick Swenson belted the first pitch of the game over the left field wall for his sixth home run of the season to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead.
MSU answered right back in the bottom of the inning with a two-out RBI single by Patrick Dockendorf.
The Mavericks then made it 3-1 in the second as Matt Kuchenbecker blasted a two-run homer to right field.
SMSU once again used the long ball in the third inning as Kinney drilled a two-run homer to left field to tie the game at 3-3. The homer by Kinney was his 17th of the season, tying the school single-season record held by Kinney (2009) and Travis Irwin (2002).
MSU regained the lead in the bottom of the third taking advantage of an SMSU error to plate across an unearned run and take a 4-3 lead. The lead grew to 6-3 in the fourth on a pair of two-out run-scoring singles by Kosuke Hattori and Ben Kincaid.
SMSU cut into the lead in the sixth as Jendro dropped in a two-out single and stole second base. Josh Wendland came through with a clutch RBI single to make the score 6-4.
The Mustangs continued to chip away adding another run in the eighth inning. Cody Curry walked with one out and moved to third on a single by Tyler Fayden. Following a pitching change, Jendro cut the lead to 6-5 with an infield single. A fielder's choice put runners on the corners with two outs, but a strikeout ended the inning.
Trailing 6-5 into the ninth inning, Swenson singled with two outs, but MSU relief pitcher Bret Mitchell retired Kinney on a fly ball to left field to end the game.
Kinney, Swenson and Jared Pick were named to the all-tournament team.
