The University of Minnesota Duluth came up short in both ends of its Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference doubleheader at Wayne State College Saturday, falling 8-3 and 2-1 in Wayne, Neb.

The host Wildcats opened the day by building a 5-0 lead after two innings. In the top of third, UMD picked up a run and later cashed in on junior left fielder Drew Stewart's two-run homer to left field. The fifth-inning blast was the seventh of Stewart's Bulldog career and his first in 2019. He drove in sophomore center fielder Henry George, who went 3-for-3 with a walk in the setback. Mistakes hurt the Bulldogs as four errors contributed to four unearned runs for Wayne State. Junior Rece Dietrich (1-1), in his third start of 2019, gave up six hits and five runs while senior Alex Ferguson, sophomore Paul Petit, rookie Zach Matthews, and senior Jeremy Thorson all saw mound work.

In the rematch, UMD (4-11 overall; 2-5 NSIC) struck one in its first at bats, but the Wildcats (13-7 overall; 4-3) answered in the bottom of first inning and then went up for good with another run in the second. The Bulldogs got one each from four different players, including both Stewart and George, who each went 1-for-4. Rookie right fielder Tim Pokornowski's two-out, bases-loaded walk accounted for the lone UMD run. 

Mitchell Waletzki got the pitching start for UMD and went the first 4.1 innings. He allowed just four hits and two runs while striking out won before giving way to fellow sophomore righthander Liam Blaschko. The Wildcats managed only one hit off Blaschko in his 2.2 innings of work.  Sean Flaherty, another second-year rightie, worked the eighth and surrendered one hit as well.

UMD and Wayne State will close out their three-game weekend series Sunday at 12 noon.