Emporia State (Kan.) University's ace spoiled the University of Minnesota Duluth's debut at the NCAA II Central Region Tournament in St. Cloud on Thursday night, but errors, both mental and physical, cost the Bulldogs as they fell 4-0 at Faber Field. No. 20 UMD will now take on Southwestern Oklahoma State University in an elimination game on Friday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.

Junior left-hander Tyler Stubblefield (10-1) faced the minimum of Bulldogs through three innings, erasing lead-off base hits by senior third baseman Kyle Comer and senior outfielder Spencer Diedrich in the second and third innings, respectively, before UMD (39-15) finally sent four batters to the plate in the fourth with sophomore outfielder Brett Milazzo left at first after a lead-off single against the transfer from Division I Texas A&M University. On the other side of the diamond, senior left-hander Bo Hellquist (7-3) matched him frame-for-shutout-frame through six.

Emporia State (38-17) had runners on second and third with one out in the third, and the bases loaded with one out in each of the fourth and sixth innings against Hellquist as he walked six batters. He got Hornets senior catcher Taylor Steen twice with the bases full and racked up 10 strikeouts in his six-plus innings of work. Stubblefield seemed to get stronger as his night went on, striking out the side in the UMD sixth. ESU finally chased the southpaw in the seventh as he hit All-Region lead-off man Dalton Wheat, and junior third baseman Daniel LaMunyon ripped a single up the middle just past the diving second baseman to put runners on first and third as junior right-hander Colton Sinning relieved the Bulldog starter. Unfortunately, the usually sure-handed reliever would have a short night as he walked a man and went 2-0 to Emporia State clean-up hitter Evan Koehler before being pulled in favor of senior right-hander Wes Mleziva.

The Hornets would score the tie-breaking run on a bases loaded walk, and an errorneous pick-off attempt at third base moved all the baserunners up 90-feet and put Emporia State up 2-0. Mleziva would re-load the bases on a walk but got a pair of strikeouts and then a tapper to third by Steen, who fell to 0-for-3 with the bases loaded in the game. Kyle Comer lined a single to left field in the seventh, becoming the first Bulldog with multiple hits, and senior second baseman Jimmy Heck drew a one-out walk that put two on and a runner at second for the first time against Stubblefield on the evening. Wheat, who scored the go-ahead run in the top of the inning for the Hornets, made a diving catch on a line drive off the bat of Diedrich to end the UMD threat there.

As the cliche goes, an outstanding play in the field is often followed by an at-bat the next inning, and Wheat would lead off the top of the eighth reaching on an error and then come around to score on an RBI double by LaMunyon. Mleziva would get the first two outs of the inning, but a walk and steal followed to put runners on first and third. A perfectly executed safety squeeze play by junior outfielder Wade Hanna spelled the end of his day as Emporia State scored a second run in the inning to go up 4-0 as sophomore left-hander Tommy Hanson took the hill, getting a groundball back to the mound to escape the top of the eighth.

Stubblefield set down the Bulldogs in order in the bottom of the inning, and Hanson followed up with a perfect ninth, collecting the UMD pitching staff's 14th strikeout of the night in the process. Emporia State's ace finished out the game with 11 strikeouts, getting the Bulldogs' two-three-four hitters in order to end his evening.

ON DECK
UMD will now meet Southwestern Oklahoma State, which was edged 3-1 by the University of Central Missouri earlier Thursday, in an elimination game on Friday afternoon in St. Cloud. First pitch is set for 1:30 p.m. at Faber Field.