GAME 1 BOX SCORE
GAME 2 BOX SCORE

WAYNE, Neb. – Southwest Minnesota State closed out its 2011 season on Sunday splitting a doubleheader at Wayne State, winning game one 2-1, before losing game two 25-12.

SMSU ends the season 11-25 overall, 7-18 NSIC and failed to qualify for the NSIC tournament for the first time in school history. SMSU was the only conference program to qualify for every tournament since it began in 1996.

In the opener, Nate Dickhausen tossed a complete game five-hitter to lead the Mustangs to a come-from-behind 2-1 victory.

SMSU scored two runs in the top of the seventh to rally for the victory and Dickhausen pitched out a jam in the bottom of the seventh to snap WSC's 12-game winning streak.

Trailing 1-0 and down to their final three outs in the seventh, Ben Korger started the rally with a single to right field. Doug Mead laid a sac bunt to advance Korger to second base before Mark Hanson tied the score with a single through the left side. Adam Thygesen pinch-ran for Hanson and moved to second base on a wild pitch. Following a ground out, Tyler Flattum gave SMSU the lead with a single to right field scoring Thygesen.

Dickhausen allowed a lead-off single in the seventh, before a sac bunt moved the potential tying run to second base. An infield single put runners on the corners with one out, but Dickhausen coaxed back-to-back ground outs to end the game.

Dickhausen finished the game recording three strikeouts while walking three batters in recording his first career complete game, while improving his record to 2-3.

Hanson led a seven-hit SMSU attack going 3 for 4 with an RBI.

In game two, SMSU started off strong scoring four runs on four hits in the top of the first inning. Flattum drilled a two-run double to start the scoring, while Cody Curry and Brian Ness followed with RBI ground outs.

WSC answered back in a big way taking advantage of two SMSU errors and collecting seven hits to score 11 runs, including 10 unearned and never looked back. The Wildcats added three more runs in the second, a run in the third and three more in the fourth to build an 18-4 lead.

SMSU reached double digits in runs scored by pushing across six runs in the fifth inning. Curry hit a two-run double, while Ness pushed across another run with sac fly. Eichten then drilled a home run over the left-center field wall to make the score 18-9, before Jordon Kontz closed out the scoring with an RBI infield single to cut the deficit to 18-10.

WSC came back with another big inning, this time scoring seven times to make the score 25-10.

The Mustangs scored single runs in the sixth and seventh innings on an RBI single by Ness and a sac fly by Fayden.

Flattum and Kontz each finished with three hits, while Flattum also scored three runs and had two RBIs. Ness and Curry both drove in a team-high three RBIs in the contest.

Ben Bartling started on the mound and suffered the loss, pitching two-thirds of an inning, allowing five hits and nine runs, but only one run was earned, while striking out two hitters.

Today's games were the final for SMSU seniors Cody Curry, Tyler Fayden, Tyler Jendro, Josh Wendland and Andy Williamson.

Wayne State is now 25-17 overall and finished 18-10 in the NSIC and earned the fourth seed in the NSIC tournament.