TUCSON, Ariz. – The Southwest Minnesota State baseball team extended its winning streak to seven in a row—the program's longest since 2014—in earning a 17-0 victory in seven innings over Dakota Wesleyan on Monday at the Kino Sports Complex.
SMSU, 11-5 overall, used a strong pitching performance from freshman
Tad Tjaden (1-1), who earned his first career victory, tossing five shutout innings with seven strikeouts, while allowing one hit and three walks.
The SMSU offense finished with 11 hits and took advantage of 12 walks and five hit batters by the DWU pitching staff.
SMSU will close out its spring trip on Tuesday with a 12 p.m. CDT game versus Carthage (Wis.).
Caden King reached base five times to pace the SMSU offense with three hits, two walks and four runs scored.
Brock Woitalla belted a three-run homer, while
Levi Lampert blasted a two-run shot for the Mustangs.
Connor Davis scored three runs and had two RBIs with
Jared Cortez closing with a pair of RBIs.
Jacob Merrill added an RBI base hit in the win with
Cody Dahlager and
Noah Thorsen each collecting RBIs with bases loaded walks.
SMSU plated four runs in the top of the first highlighted by a two-run single by Cortez and an RBI base hit by
Nathan Wheeler. The Mustangs added six runs in the second with
Tanner Rezny smacking an RBI single before Woitalla came through with a big three-run home run to left field.
Ryan Dalager retired all six batters he faced with three strikeouts to close out the final two innings for the Mustangs.
DWU is now 9-7 on the season.
