MANKATO, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State baseball team battled to the very end on Saturday afternoon before suffering a heartbreaking 7-5 loss to NSIC regular season and nationally ranked Minnesota State at Bowyer Field.
 
SMSU, eliminated on Friday from being able to qualify for the eight-team NSIC tournament, ends the season in ninth place in the league standings. The Mustangs close the season at 23-24 overall, 18-22 NSIC, after dropping their final seven games of the season. The Mavericks ranked No. 4/7 in the national polls ends the regular season at 44-5 overall, 36-4 NSIC.
 
MSU's Ike Mezzenga, a transfer from the University of Minnesota, belted a two-out, three-run home run in the bottom of the eighth to snap a 4-4 game. SMSU attempted a rally in the ninth scoring a run and had the tying run at the plate, but a double play ended the comeback attempt.
 
Owen Latendresse, one of 11 seniors for the Mustangs, finished 3 for 4 with three runs scored in his final game and closed his career with 201 hits ranking fifth in team history. Carter Lang also had a big game for the Mustangs cracking out three hits, including a home run, while driving in four runs.
 
SMSU's Levi Lampert walked in the game to reach base in all 47 games this season, extending his school record streak.
 
SMSU jumped to an early lead with Lang smacking a two-run homer, his sixth long-ball of the season.
 
MSU answered with a run off SMSU starting pitcher Jameson Quinn in the first and then added two more runs, including one unearned in the second, to take a 3-2 lead.
 
Quinn tossed the first three innings and allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits with two strikeouts and three walks.
 
Senior Cameron Jensen came into pitch for the Mustangs and held the Mavericks in check, giving just one run in his first four innings and allowing the Mustangs to rally.
 
Down 4-2 in the seventh, Caleb Gardow opened the inning reaching via an error and advanced to second base. Following a walk to Lampert, Latendresse hit a double off the left field wall, but a perfect relay to the plate gunned down Gardow for the first out. With two runners in scoring position, Cory Bantam was intentionally walked to load the bases. Lang made the Mavericks pay by ripping a two-run single to left field to tie the game at 4-4. SMSU had a great chance to regain the lead, but Bantam was out at the plate on a ground ball, while a strikeout stranded the go-ahead run at second base.
 
The game remained tied into the bottom of the eighth when Mezzenga hit a 1-2 pitch from Jensen for an opposite field three-run homer to put the Mavericks back in the lead at 7-4.
 
SMSU put together another rally in the ninth with Latendresse hitting a one-out single and later scoring on a Bantam run-scoring single. MSU relief pitcher, Ean DiPasquale, however coaxed a game-ending 6-4-3 double play.
 
Jensen (3-2) tossed five innings of relief in his final game, allowing four runs on five hits with three strikeouts and three walks. Jensen ends his career ranking second in team history in strikeouts per nine innings (9.91), third in saves (8) and sixth in appearances (53).
 
Today's game was the final in the brown and gold uniform for Mustang seniors Noah Cekalla, Ryan Chmielewski, Jerod Cyrus, Shay Endres, Gardow, Levi Iverson, Jensen, Bennett Knapper, Latendresse, Brady Petron and Carter Petron.
 
Chmielewski ranks second in team history in game started (42), third in innings pitched (232.1) and third in strikeouts (219).
 
Cyrus appeared in 47 games in his career ranking ninth all-time.
 
Gardow ranks sixth in team history in putouts with 775.
 
Latendresse closed his career ranking first all-time in triples (13), second in at bats (612), tied for fourth in hit by pitches (34), fifth in hits (201) and fifth in total bases (313).
 
Knapper's 22 pitching appearances this season ranks second in team single-season history.