GAME 1 BOX SCORE
GAME 2 BOX SCORE

MINNEAPOLIS - Southwest Minnesota State head baseball coach Paul Blanchard recorded his 400th career victory as SMSU swept a non-conference doubleheader from Augustana College on Tuesday winning 5-2 and 4-2 at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

Blanchard, in his 16th season, has an all-time record of 400-293-1 in the Mustang dugout.

SMSU is now 10-5 overall, while Augustana drops to 5-6 on the season.

In the opener, Aaron Johnson tossed six strong innings to earn the victory, allowing just four hits and two unearned run with four strikeouts and one walk.  Two of the four hits Johnson allowed were bunt singles and he finished throwing just 75 pitches, including 54 for strikes.  Ben Bartling allowed a double in the seventh, but closed out the game for his first career save.

Brian Ness finished 3 for 4 with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored to lead an eight-hit SMSU attack. 

Augustana broke a scoreless game with a pair of unearned runs in the third, but SMSU quickly answered to tie the game in the top of the fourth.  Jordon Kontz led off with a walk and came around to score one batter later as Ness ripped a double off the first baseman to cut the lead to 2-1.  Ness came around to score two batters later on a sac fly by Adam Thygesen to tie the game at 2.

SMSU took the lead in the fifth as Chris Eichten led off getting hit by a pitch and moved to second on a sac bunt by Doug Mead.  With two outs, Kontz came through with a clutch run-scoring single to give SMSU a 3-2 lead.  Ness followed with a double to the wall in right field to put runners on second and third, but Kyle Young grounded out to end the inning.

SMSU added to the lead in the seventh with Korger delivering a run-scoring double and a bases loaded walk to Kyle Young scoring another run and giving SMSU a 5-2 lead.

In game two, Bryce Rippentrop recorded a career-high nine strikeouts, scattering five hits, allowing two runs and two walks in five innings to pick up the victory.  Alex Alvarez tossed two hitless innings with one strikeout to earn his second save of the season.

Steven Kremer paced SMSU offensively going 2 for 2 with an RBI and run scored.

Augustana took a 1-0 lead in the first, but SMSU answered back in the bottom half of the inning, taking advantage of an error to score two unearned runs.  Thygesen tied the game with a sac fly before Jon Ellis gave SMSU the lead with an RBI single. 

The Vikings pushed across a run in the third to tie the game, but SMSU regained the lead for good in the fourth scoring a pair of runs.  Kremer drilled a run-scoring double into the left-centerfield gap to score Tyler Flattum, before coming around to score two batters later on a sac bunt by Kontz. 

Rippentrop and Alvarez then combined to retire nine of the final 10 batters of the game to secure the victory.

Southwest Minnesota State will now have 10 days off before beginning conference play on Saturday, March 31, starting a four-game series at Upper Iowa University.