MANKATO, Minn. – Minnesota State, which has already won the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference regular season championship, defeated Southwest Minnesota State twice on Friday afternoon in a Friday conference baseball doubleheader at Bowyer Field. MSU won the opener 7-1, before jumping out to big lead in game two and earning a 14-6 victory.
MSU (43-5, 35-4 NSIC), ranked No. 3 in this week's NCAA Central Region poll, is No. 4 in this week's ABCA Top 25 poll and is No. 7 in the NCBWA Top 25 poll.
The losses today eliminate SMSU's chances of qualifying for next week's NSIC tournament. SMSU will conclude the season on Saturday taking on MSU in the final game of the series starting at 12 p.m. SMSU, which has lost six straight, is now 23-23 overall, 18-21 NSIC.
In game one, MSU loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the first, but SMSU starting pitcher
Ryan Chmielewski worked out of the jam with a pop out, strikeout and fly out to keep the game scoreless.
The Mavericks struck for three runs in the second and added another in the third to build a 4-0 lead.
SMSU nearly scored in the fourth inning with Bantam reaching via a two-out single and moving to second on a wild pitch.
Jared Cortez followed with a single to left field, but Bantam was thrown out at the plate to keep MSU in the lead at 4-0.
MSU added two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to extend the margin to 7-0. SMSU was able to break the shutout attempt in the sixth with
Brock Woitalla and
Levi Lampert each hitting one out singles before
Owen Latendresse connected on an RBI single to make the score 7-1.
Chmielewski (5-3) tossed 4 1/3 innings in suffering the loss allowing seven runs (six earned) on eight hits with six walks and two strikeouts. The two strikeouts give him 219 in his career moving into sole possession of third in the team record book. Chris Pack (1995-98) ranks second with 224, while Adam Schrader (2006-10) is the all-time leader with 244.
Logan Bullock retired all five batters he faced with one strikeout for the Mustangs.
MSU closed game one with eight hits, while SMSU finished with six hits as Lampert, Latendresse, Bantam, Cortez, Woitalla and Cortez each had one hit.
Matthew Fleischhacker led the Mavericks with three hits and two RBIs.
In game two, Latendresse led the Mustangs with three hits and scored one run. With his three-hit game, Latendresse moved into sole possession of fifth-place in the programs all-time hits list with 198.
SMSU scored the first run of the game with Latendresse crossing the plate in the top of the first, but MSU showed why it is one of the best teams in the country collecting eight hits and scoring seven runs in the home half of the first. The Mavericks then put the game away with a six-run second to lead 13-1.
Lampert and Latendresse each hit one-out singles in the third with Lampert eventually scoring on a fielder's choice RBI by Cortez. The Mustangs scored three runs on four hits in the fourth with Woitalla hitting an RBI double to plate
Carter Lang, before Lampert connected on a two-run single to make the score 13-5.
Trailing 14-5 in the ninth, SMSU scored its final run as
Brady Petron belted his first home run of the season for the game's final margin.
Carter Petron (4-5) pitched one-plus inning to take the loss, allowing nine runs on 10 hits.
Shay Endres tossed an inning and gave up four runs on five hits.
Cameron Jensen pitched 2 1/3 innings giving up one run with one strikeout;
Bennett Knapper tossed one shutout inning, while
Austin Dent recorded three strikeouts in firing two shutout frames.
Lampert joined Latendresse with a multi-hit game, finishing 2 for 5 with two RBIs and a run scored and has reached base in all 46 games this season. Lang,
Evan Behn, Petron and Woitalla each finished with one hit. Bantam earned a walk in the game and extended his on-base streak to 26 straight games.
Bantam, Latendresse, Cortez and Lampert each have a team-high 15 multi-hit games on the season.
Zach Stroh hit two home runs and had six RBIs for MSU in game two.
