MANDAN, N.D. – The Southwest Minnesota State baseball team had its season end on Thursday suffering a pair of losses in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference tournament at Veterans Memorial Field.
 
SMSU opened the day losing to Minnesota State 15-2 in the winner's bracket before losing 8-4 to Concordia-St. Paul in the losers' bracket.
 
SMSU, which earned its first NSIC tournament victory since 2014 on Wednesday night, ends the season with a record of 27-24.
 
In Thursday's first game, MSU (36-16)—ranked No. 10 in this week's NCAA regional rankings—scored three runs in the second, a run in the fourth and added three more in the fifth to build a 7-0 lead off SMSU starting pitcher Carter Petron.
 
SMSU scored its two runs in the game with Max Kalenberg connecting on a two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning to trim the deficit to 7-2. MSU would seal the win with a seven-run home half of the seventh to secure its spot in the winner's bracket final.
 
The Mustangs were limited to five hits in the game with Chase McDaniel finishing with a pair of hits, while Kalenberg, Jaxon Haase and Owen Latendresse each had one hit.
 
Petron (6-2) pitched four-plus innings allowing seven runs on 10 hits with two strikeouts and three walks to suffer the loss.
 
In Thursday night's loss, SMSU opened the scoring in the bottom of the first with Kalenberg stroking a two-out RBI single to plate McDaniel to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead.
 
CSP (29-21) tied the game with the help of a one-out walk, a wild pitch on a two-out strikeout and another wild pitch to make the score 1-1.
 
SMSU would go back on top in the fourth with Latendresse reaching on a leadoff single before Keenan Wenzel drilled a two-out, two-run home run to build a 3-1 advantage. It was Wenzel's second two-run home run of the tournament.
 
CSP hit a solo home run in the fifth to cut the SMSU lead in half, before taking the lead in the sixth behind an RBI double and two-run home run to build a 5-3 lead. The Golden Bears pushed across three more runs in the seventh to seal the victory.
 
SMSU plated its final run of the season in the ninth with Tauer drilled a one-out double and scoring on an RBI single by Peyton Nash.
 
Ryan Chmielewski (3-7) started for the Mustangs and struck out a season-high 10 batters, while allowing five runs on six hits with four walks. Shay Endres allowed three runs on four hits before Cameron Jensen fired a solid 2 2/3 shutout innings with two strikeouts.
 
SMSU ended the game with eight hits with Nash and Latendresse collecting two each, while Tauer, Wenzel, Kalenberg and McDaniel all had one hit.
 
Thursday's games were the final for Mustang seniors Chase McDaniel, Hayden Molva, Isaac Nett, Keenan Wenzel, Jake Tauer, Kolby Kiser, Max Kalenberg, Peyton Nash, Kobe Lovell, Jaxon Haase, Ansen Dulas, Brady Brosz, and Logan McCray.
 
McDaniel ended the season with a school single-season record 90 hits and closed his career as the program's all-time hits leader with 241.