Today, the University of Minnesota Duluth baseball team continued its extended stretch of road games to start off the 2021 season. The Bulldogs headed to Sioux Falls, SD to take on the University of Sioux Falls in a NSIC mid-week double-header. The Bulldogs took game one in an offensive affair 15-9 and dropped a back and forth game two 9-7. The Bulldogs now sit at 4-9 (2-8) in the NSIC.
 
Alex Wattermann was on the bump for UMD in game one of the series. Wattermann would be credited with his first win of the season moving his record to 1-1. Both the Cougars and the Bulldogs would start slow on the offensive side. The Cougars would get one run on Wattermann in the bottom of the second but nothing more through the first four innings. The Bulldogs would go scoreless until the top of the fourth. From this point on the two teams would score at a furious pace. In the top half of the fourth UMD would explode offensively plating seven runs in the inning. Tim Pokornowski continued his hot hand with the bat with a 2RBI double and a Alex Wattermann helped himself out with his RBI groundout. Hayden Brown and Henry George would also record 2RBI doubles in the inning and Brandt Kolpack's RBI single would bring the score to 7-1 the middle of the fourth inning. UMD wasn't done either in the top of the fifth an Anders Brown 2RBI double padded the UMD lead to 9-1. The Cougars would respond with a large inning of their own as they brought six players across the plate in the inning as things tightened right back up at a 9-7 score. The Bulldogs would come right back out in the top of the 6^th and plate five more runs courtesy of 2RBI singles from Wattermann and Tyler Peterson, and an RBI double from Tosten Mann which would bring the UMD run total to 14. USF would score two in the bottom half of the sixth bringing their total to nine, but would fail to score again. A Brodie Paulson sacrifice fly in the top of the 9^th would bring us to our final score of 15-9.

UMD Notables:
George: 2-4, 3R, RBI, 3B, 2B, SB
Pokornowski: 2-4, 3R, 2RBI, 2B, 3B / 4.0IP, 3H, 3ER, 4BB, 5K's W (1-1)
Wattermann: 1-4, R, 3RBI,
Brown, A: 2-4, 2R, RBI, 2B
Peterson: 2-4, R, 2RBI
Brown, H: 1-4, R, 2RBI
Thiel: 1.1IP, 4H, 2ER, BB,
O'Bey: 1.0IP, H, K
 
In game two the Bulldogs and Cougars would play a back and forth game that saw multiple ties and lead changes over the course of nine innings. The Bulldogs got off to a hot start at the plate in the first frame. Brodie Paulson would lift a ball over the right field wall in the first inning bringing Henry George along for the ride and giving UMD an early 2-0 lead. The Bulldogs capitalized again in the first inning thanks to an Anders Brown RBI double that brought Tosten Mann around to score. USF would then score four straight runs, one in the first, one in the third, and two in the fourth to take a 4-3 lead heading into the fifth inning. Eli Drexler would propel UMD back ahead on the scoreboard with his 2RBI single in the top of the sixth inning scoring A. Brown and McCale Peterson. The Cougars, however would answer in the bottom half of the inning scoring three of their own and retaking the lead at 7-5 heading into the seventh inning of play. True to form for most of this game UMD would answer right back in the top of the seventh Tyler Peterson and Drexler would draw walks with the bases loaded scoring two runs and tying the game. Sioux Falls would go ahead for good in the bottom of the 8^th as they converted an RBI triple and sacrifice fly to get us to our final score of 9-7. Eric Hinnenkamp would be credited with the loss for UMD and Alex Krout would record the win for USF.

UMD Notables:
Paulson: 1-3, 2R, 2RBI, BB, HR
Peterson, M: 2-4, R, BB
Brown, A: 2-3, R, RBI, 2BB, 2B
Wukmir: 5.0IP, 5H, 4ER, 4BB, 3K's, ND
Brown, H: 0.2IP, 2H, 2ER, 2BB, K
Hinnenkamp: 2.1IP, 2H, 2ER, BB, L (0-1)
 
The Bulldogs will finally be the home team this weekend, as they will welcome Upper Iowa to the Northland for their home opener this Friday. The four game series is scheduled for 1:30 and 3:30 starts on Friday and 12:00 and 2:00 PM starts on Saturday.