KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Henry Hammrich belted a one-out grand slam in the top of the seventh inning to lift Southwest Minnesota State to a thrilling 5-2 victory in game one of a non-conference doubleheader versus Truman State (Mo.) on Friday afternoon at Bulldog Baseball Park.
TSU (5-5) built a 5-0 lead and held off a late SMSU (4-5) comeback attempt to earn a 5-3 victory in game two and salvage a split. The teams will conclude the series with a pair of seven-inning games on Saturday starting at 12 p.m.
Trailing 2-1 in the seventh and final frame,
Carter Lang started the rally with a walk and moved to second after
Tyler Froland was hit by a pitch. Following a sac bunt by
Nathan Wheeler,
Brock Woitalla was drilled by a pitch to load the bases. Hammrich followed with his first home run of the season, clearing the left field fence, to give SMSU a 5-2 advantage.
Austin Dent (1-1) worked a perfect seventh inning to complete the comeback victory and he tossed the final 1 2/3 innings allowing one walk with one strikeout.
Tyler Nesheim started and lasted 5 1/3 innings for the Mustangs, striking out three and walking one, while allowing two runs on five hits.
SMSU was limited to just four hits with
Levi Lampert collecting two, while
Jared Cortez joined Hammrich with one base hit.
TSU scored two first inning runs before SMSU cut the deficit in half in the fourth inning with
Connor Davis hitting a sac fly to score Lampert.
In game two, the Bulldogs built a 5-0 lead after six innings before the Mustangs rallied with nearly tie the game. With one out,
Josh Berreth was hit by a pitch and moments later
Tanner Rezny drilled a two-run, pinch-hit home run to right-center field to put SMSU on the board. Lampert continued the rally with a single and moved to third on a double by Cortez.
Evan Behn dropped an RBI single to plate Lampert and make the score 5-3. Following a fly out, Lang was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but the game ended one batter via strikeout.
SMSU held a 9-6 advantage on base hits with Lampert and Cortez each collecting two hits.
Tad Tjaden (0-1) started on the mound for SMSU and fired 4 1/3 innings and allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits with two strikeouts and one walk.
