MANKATO, Minn. -- The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team used timely relief from Owen Latendresse and huge eighth inning to earn a game one victory over Minnesota Duluth, but SMSU struggled on the mound in game two, as the Bulldogs tacked on 14 runs to earn a split in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference baseball on Monday at ISG Field.
 
SMSU is now 2-6 overall and 2-6 in NSIC play. UMD now sits at 2-2 overall and 2-2 in the NSIC.
 
Latendresse (1-0) earned the victory in game one after relieving Chmielewski in the seventh inning. The junior got the Mustangs out of a jam, preventing a UMD walk-off with two strikeouts in four batters faced.
 
The Mustangs racked up 10 hits with Chase McDaniel coming through with one of the biggest hits in the game belting a two-run home run to score the game-winning run in the top of the eighth inning.
 
Keenan Wenzel knocked a team-high three hits, while Chase McDaniel and Max Kalenberg each collected two hits in the victory.
 
SMSU opened the scoring in the third inning with Wenzel scoring on a wild pitch before Keenan Wenzel delivered a run-scoring single to left field to plate Caleb Gardow in the following inning.
 
The action in the game fell quiet until the home half of the seventh inning when UMD's Trevor Gustafson hit a left field home run to cut the SMSU lead to 2-1. With no outs and runners on first and second, the Bulldogs' Troy Lynch entered as a pinch hitter and dilled a ball up the middle to score the runner on second and tie the game 2-2.
 
Again, with nobody down the following batter singled through the left side. Isaac Nett arguably saved SMSU with a cannon from left field to gun the runner out at the plate. The Mustangs intentionally walked Ethan Cole to load the bases and Latendresse struck the next two batters out swinging.
 
The lead moved to 8-2 in the eighth as Latendresse reached on a fielder's choice before McDaniel blasted his first home run of the season over the left field fence. SMSU would add four more runs in the eighth with Kalenberg and Haase scoring on an double from Jake Tauer followed by another double from Peyton Nash to score Tauer. Wenzel singled up the middle to score Nash and put dagger in the game.
 
In game two, SMSU built a 5-0 lead in the third inning, but UMD rallied with a 14-run unanswered runs to put away the game.
 
SMSU scored three runs in the first with a sac fly from Isaac Nett and a two-out, two-run single from Jake Tauer that plated two.
 
UMD would cut the deficit to 5-2 in the third inning with a two-run home run by Kade Peloquin.
 
SMSU starter Ansen Dulas tossed the first four innings before being relieved for Kobe Lovell in the fifth. Dulas allowed four runs (all earned) on four hits with four strikeouts.
 
UMD added to its rally of 14 unanswered runs in the bottom of the fifth, notching nine runs on nine hits in the inning, leaving just one runner on base. UMD added one more run in the sixth inning on a fielder's choice.
 
SMSU closed game two with six hits with Latendresse and Tauer each collecting two RBIs.
 
Dulas allowed two four runs (all earned) and four hits in four innings with four strikeouts and no walks. Will Hoernemann and Noah Cekalla faced three batters apiece in the fifth inning with no recorded outs. Zach Hoehn and Jerod Cyrus also pitched in relief, with Cyrus pitching for 1/3 innings and Hoehn throwing 1 1/3 innings, allowing a run with two strikeouts. Lovell (0-1) suffered the loss giving up three runs (all earned) on three hits in 1/3 innings thrown.
 
SMSU baseball is back in action at the Tucson Invitational in Tucson, Ariz., playing 10 games from March 2-10.