On day two of a four-game series in Crookston, Minn., the University of Minnesota Duluth was unable to steal a game from the host University of Minnesota Crookston, dropping a 5-1 contest before surrendering a late lead to fall 3-2 in the rematch. UMD moves to 21-24, 16-17 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference on the season while UMC improves to 22-24, 16-18 NSIC.
UMC 5, UMD 1
After three frames of scoreless baseball, Minnesota Crookston broke the tie in the fourth on a sacrifice fly to left field off of freshman pitcher
Travis Berg. The Golden Eagles would explode for four runs in the fifth inning large in part to walks by the Bulldogs, now holding a 5-0 advantage.
UMD couldn't string together enough hits to mount a comeback, tacking on a lone run in the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly by junior outfielder
Brett Milazzo which sent freshman
Chris Saltzmann across the plate.
Milazzo and senior catcher
Marco Lucarelli each picked up a pair of singles while senior outfielder
Matt Vogt recorded the only other hit of the game for UMD.
On the mound, the Bulldogs turned towards a by-committee approach, using five pitchers in the six innings. Junior
Nick Dorfman got the start and pitched a scoreless first frame then sophomore
Adam Hallberg added two scoreless innings of his own. Berg (L, 1-1) and sophomore
Jeremy Thorson combined for the fourth and fifth innings before freshmanÂ
Kole Zuidmulder picked up a 1-2-3 sixth inning.
UMC 3, UMD 2
The Golden Eagles once again struck first by scoring in the first inning, but it took UMD only until the fourth inning to answer and capture its first lead of the afternoon. Freshman
Alex Welder got the scoring started with an RBI-single before being followed with an RBI-groundout by senior shortstop
Brian Pierce.
Senior southpaw
Kevin Stocke found success in his start on the mound, cruising through 7.1 innigns with just two runs allowed and striking out five. After giving up the first inning run, Stocke found his stride to throw six consecutive scoreless innings.Â
Senior
Colton Sinning was called to action in the eight inning to make his third appearance of the weekend, but as was the case yesterday the Golden Eagles were able to pick up a walk-off win. Junior shortstop Ethan Mushitz drove a two-out single to left field to score the game's winning run in the ninth.
The Bulldogs combined for five hits for the second straight game, each coming from a different player. Sophomore
Ben Danielson laced the only extra-base hit for UMD with a double to center field in the first inning.
UP NEXT
UMD will turn its attention towards Northern State University as the Wolves make a trip to Duluth next weekend in the regular season finales for both teams.