MARSHALL, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State baseball team officially opened its home season on Saturday splitting a doubleheader with Minnesota Crookston at Legion Field, winning the opening game 1-0, before dropping a 7-5 battle in game two.
The two teams will conclude the three-game set tomorrow with a single-game starting at 12 p.m. The Mustangs were playing their first game in Marshall after playing six 'home' games in Milroy the past two weeks.
In game one, SMSU used a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first from
Levi Lampert and outstanding pitching from
Ryan Chmielewski to earn the victory. Lampert smacked a 1-2 pitch from UMC starter Josh Dykhoff for the only run of the game and his 10
th home run of the season.
Chmielewski and Dykhoff locked in a pitcher's duel the rest of the game with Chmielewski (4-1) firing 6 1/3 innings and allowing just three hits with five strikeouts and no walks. He did not allow a single Golden Eagles runner to reach second base in the game.
With one out in the seventh UMC's Americo Sculati singled to bring the go-ahead to the plate and summoned SMSU relief pitcher
Cameron Jensen into the game. Following a fielder's choice for the second out, UMC's Aaron Wensloff singled to keep the game alive, but Jensen closed the game with a pop out to earn his fourth save of the season.
Both teams finished the game with four hits as Lampert,
Jared Cortez,
Cory Bantam and
Caleb Gardow each had one hit.
Dykhoff was the tough-luck losing pitcher racking up eight strikeouts with no walks.
In game two, UMC jumped to an early lead off SMSU starting pitcher
Shay Endres, with Dykhoff belting a two-run home run.
Endres was solid over the next three-plus innings shutting down the Golden Eagles and allowing the Mustang bats to heat-up and take its only lead of the game. Cortez started the fourth inning rally with a single, while Bantam smacked a double to center to put a pair of runners in scoring position.
Owen Latendresse cut the deficit in half with an RBI single to plate Cortez. Bantam would sprint home moments later on a wild pitch to tie the game before
Evan Behn gave SMSU a 3-2 lead with a sac fly to plate Latendresse.
UMC would rally in the fifth with an RBI fielder's choice to tie the game at 3-3 after five innings before regaining the lead for good with a two-run sixth inning. Facing SMSU relief pitcher
Austin Dent, Dykhoff snapped the tie with a home run and later added a run on a two-out run-scoring single.
SMSU rallied in the home half of the sixth with Cortez smacking a double and later coming home to score on a clutch two-out, run-scoring base hit by
Carter Lang to trim the deficit to 5-4.
UMC added to the lead without a base hit in the seventh, taking advantage of four walks and a hit by pitch to score two runs and extend the lead to 7-4.
Gardow doubled to start the seventh, but the Mustangs failed to score following a fly out and two pop outs.
SMSU was able to plate a run in the eighth with Bantam drilling a leadoff single and later scoring on an RBI double by Latendresse. SMSU had a chance to pull within a run two batters later, but Latendresse was out at the plate on a strong defensive play by UMC pitcher Nate Grafsgaard.
SMSU out-hit UMC 10-8 in game two with Cortez, Bantam and Latendresse each collecting a pair of hits, while Cortez and Bantam scored twice.
Endres allowed three runs on four hits with four strikeouts and one walk in earning a no-decision. Dent (0-1) suffered the loss allowing two runs (one earned) on two hits with one walk.
Bennett Knapper tossed one shutout inning with
Jerod Cyrus allowing a pair of runs on four walks and one strikeout.
Vinny Mauro fired a solid 2 1/3 innings of shutout relief with one strikeout.
