Junior left-handed pitcher
Bo Hellquist tossed a no-hitter in the University of Minnesota Duluth's long-awaited return to Duluth as the Bulldogs split their home-opening Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference doubleheader against No. 2 Minnesota State University at Wade Stadium on Friday afternoon.
UMD (11-7, 6-4 NSIC) won the opener 5-1 on the back of Hellquist's no-hitter, but fell 5-0 in game two as Mavericks (16-3, 6-2 NSIC) freshman starter Aaron Rozek tossed 8.0 shutout innings, striking out seven and scattering three hits.
COVERING THE BASES• Hellquist's no-hitter was the story for the day for UMD, as the southpaw struck out seven, allowing a run in the sixth inning as the Mavericks worked a pair of walks and a sacrifice fly to cross the plate. He struck out seven and hit a batter aside from two walks. Junior right-hander
Austin Vaske tossed 5.2 innings in game two, allowing three earned runs (four overall), striking out one and scattering 10 baserunners. Freshman righty
Justin Kunkel and junior
Matt Mattiacci tosses the final two shutout innings for UMD.
• Sophomore left-fielder
Grant Farley and senior catcher
Beau Goff each had a pair of hits in game one, with Goff driving in a run. Junior third baseman
Kyle Comer extended his hitting streak to nine games with an RBI in game one, but went hitless in game two. Senior centefielder
John Meyer was 2-of-6, drew a pair of walks, and scored a run on the day.
UMD scored a pair of runs in the first inning, getting their run at Wade Stadium off to the right start while Hellquist faced the minimum through 4.2 innings. The Bulldogs scratched a run across in the fifth inning, and answered MSU's sixth inning run with two of their own in the bottom of the inning while Hellquist shut them down the rest of the way. The Mavericks scored an unearned run in the top of the second of game two but UMD couldn't get a timely hit needed to tie the game as Minnesota State scored in the sixth and seventh innings to hold off the home Bulldogs.
UP NEXTUMD and MSU will play two again tomorrow afternoon at Wade Stadium. Opening pitch is set for 12:00 p.m.
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