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TUCSON, Ariz. – The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team earned two big victories on Friday at the Kino Sports Complex using strong starting pitching in game one to defeat Concordia-St. Paul, 7-0, and then hammered out 19 hits in game two to defeat Walsh University (Ohio), 17-11.
 
In the win over CSP, Ansen Dulas fired one-hit ball over seven innings with seven strikeouts. He finished the game tossing 80 pitches with 52 for strikes, while walking one and hit two batters. Dulas was dominate all game long, including retiring 13 straight CSP batters from the second through sixth innings. After issuing a lead-off walk in the seventh, Dulas coaxed a double play and following a walk, closed his outing with a strikeout.
 
SMSU closed the game with 10 hits with Jake Tauer, Keenan Wenzel and Caleb Gardow all finishing with two hits apiece. SMSU had plenty of chances to add to the lead leaving 14 runners on base.
 
SMSU struck with a big three-run inning in the home half of the second. Owen Latendresse started the inning reaching on a fielding error and moved to second on a line single by Tauer. Wenzel followed with an RBI double and moments later Gardow lashed a run-scoring single to right. Chase McDaniel would later cap the inning with a sac fly to score Wenzel and push the lead to 3-0.
 
SMSU added to the lead in the third with Isaac Nett starting the rally with a single and advanced to second following a hit by pitch to Max Kalenberg. Following a fly out, Tauer drilled a single to load the bases before Wenzel came through with an RBI single to make the score 4-0 after three innings of play.
 
The Mustangs extended the lead in the sixth as Gardow singled and was followed by a walk to Robbie Smith. McDaniel would push across the first run with an RBI single and later in the frame Smith would score on a sac fly by Jaxon Haase.
 
The lead moved to 7-0 in the eighth as the Mustangs used a pair of hit by pitches and two walks, including one with the bases loaded to Wenzel to make the score 7-0.
 
Hayden Molva tossed the final two innings to secure the win and allowed three hits with one strikeout.
 
In the second game of the day, Smith had a monster game with a career-high five hits, including two triples and career-high five RBIs, while scoring three runs. He is the first Mustang since Kyle Young in 2012 to have two triples in a game.
 
Peyton Nash and Nett both closed the game with three hits, with Nett blasting his first home run of the season. Haase and Latendresse finished with two hits apiece with Latendresse scoring three times.
 
The Cavaliers took advantage of a hit by pitch, sandwiched around two infield singles, to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
 
The Mustangs used a two-out rally in the second to take a 2-1 lead. A walk to Nash, a bunt single by Smith and a walk to Brady Petron loaded the bases with two outs before Matt Seykora came through with a clutch two-run single to put SMSU in the lead.
 
SMSU took advantage of a pair of WU errors and another big two-out hit to add to the lead in the third. Haase led-off the inning with single and following a sac bunt moved to third on a walk to Kalenberg and a fielding error by the WSU shortstop to load the bases. After a strikeout, Smith came through with deep drive off the left-center field wall for a bases clearing triple. It's the third triple of the season for Smith. Moments later, Petron reached on a throwing error to plate Smith and extend the lead to 6-1 after three innings.
 
WU would use a home run, a double and a triple to score two runs in the fifth, but SMSU had a big answer in the home half with five runs on six hits to extend the margin to 11-3. McDaniel and Haase opened the inning with back-to-back doubles, while a single by Nett and a walk to Kalenberg loaded the bases. Latendresse drove in two runs with a single, while Nash followed with an RBI single to make the score 10-3. Smith would cap the scoring with another run-scoring single to give the Mustangs an eight-run lead.
 
The Cavaliers would threaten to score in the fifth, loading the bases with no outs off Mustang reliever Cameron Jensen with a single, walk and fielding error, but Jensen stepped up and recorded three straight strikeouts to end the rally.
 
SMSU added to the lead in the fifth as Nett drilled his first home run of the season over the right field wall to move the lead to 12-3.
 
WU came right back with a four-run sixth behind two hits and taking advantage of four walks and a hit by pitch to trim the deficit to 12-7.
 
SMSU picked up two of the runs back in the home half of the sixth with Nash, Smith and Petron all collecting singles to load the bases. With one out, Jackson Bates hits a grounder to shortstop for a fielder's choice to score one run, but on the relay to first a throwing error pushed across a second run to give the Mustangs a 14-7 advantage.  
 
The Mustangs added two more runs in the seventh on an RBI double by Nash and an RBI triple by Smith.
 
Trailing 16-7, WU wouldn't go away and scored four times in the eighth to trail 16-11. SMSU would answer with one run in the bottom of the inning as Jackson Bates and Nett singled, before Bates would score on a WU fielding error to make the score 17-11.
 
Brady Petron started for SMSU on the mound and lasted four innings, allowing three runs on six hits with four strikeouts. Will Baldus, the third of five SMSU relievers, earned his first career victory firing 1 2/3 innings with four strikeouts, while allowing one hit and no runs. Mitchell Bouwman closed the game tossing 1 2/3 innings with two strikeouts.
 
SMSU will next face Malone (Ohio) on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. CST. The Pioneers defeated the Mustangs, 6-4, on Thursday afternoon.