Box Score

TUCSON, Ariz. – Southwest Minnesota State bashed out a season-high 16 hits and earned its first victory of the season with a 13-9 win over the University of Winnipeg on Sunday night at Tucson Invitational.
 
Shane Sellner and Derek Branson led the Mustang attack with both collecting a career-high four hits, while Josh Cook added three hits. Tanner Picht and Branson both finished with three RBIs.
 
Cole Petersen (1-0) earned his first collegiate victory, tossing 4 2/3 innings of relief, allowing one run on two hits with three strikeouts.
 
SMSU started the game with a bang—scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. Branson started the scoring with an RBI single and was followed by a run-scoring double by Jon Leighton. Sellner then crushed an RBI triple to give SMSU a 3-0 lead.
 
SMSU made it 5-0 in the second as Picht drilled a 2-run homer—his team leading third of the season—over the right field wall.
 
Winnipeg cut the deficit to 5-1 in the second, but SMSU picked the run back up on an RBI ground out by Cole VanderBeek.
 
The Wesmen then put together a pair of three-run innings in the third and fourth innings to take a 7-6 advantage.
 
SMSU took advantage of a Winnipeg error in the sixth to tie the game. Picht opened the inning reaching on a fielding error and later scored on a two-out RBI single by Cook.
 
The Mustangs regained the lead in the seventh, pushing across four runs on four hits. Picht ripped an opposite field double to break the tie, before Jayden Fleck scored on a wild pitch to make the score 9-7. Leighton and Sellner each collected RBI singles later in the inning to push the margin to 11-7.
 
Winnipeg scored a run in the seventh, but SMSU answered in the eighth as Branson smacked a two-out, two-run double to make the score 13-8.
 
Davis Bryan started for the Mustangs and lasted 3 1/3 innings, allowing eight hits, seven runs (five earned), with four walks.
 
Southwest Minnesota State continues action tomorrow facing Northern State in a nine-inning game starting at 4 p.m. CST.