BOX SCORE
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – No. 1-seeded St. Cloud State got a complete-game effort from Scott Lieser as the Huskies opened the NCAA Central Region Tournament with a 7-1 win over No. 6-seeded Augustana Thursday evening at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud, Minn.
SCSU (43-9) moves on to play No. 4-seeded Minnesota State tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. Augustana (30-23) will face No. 2-seeded Mesa State tomorrow at noon.
Lieser (9-0) allowed six hits and struck out half a dozen for the Huskies.
Derek Hansen (5-4) took the loss for Augustana, which is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. He tossed 5.0 innings, allowing nine hits and three earned runs while fanning five Huskies.
Nick Seliski worked 2.0 innings, and
Kye Winter threw the final inning.
Travis Enger went 4 for 4 with an RBI for SCSU. Travis Cariveau, Jordan Smith, Joey Benke and Kent Koch each had an RBI.
Drew Heithoff pushed in the Vikings' lone run and registered a 2-for-4 performance.
Augustana committed four errors in the loss.
And those Viking errors would prove dangerous early as the Huskies scored their first run via a trio of Augustana miscues. SCSU's Brian Hansen was the recipient of those mistakes, getting aboard after Viking receiver
Nate Alfson couldn't find the ball on a swinging strike three. He then stole second and took third when Alfson overthrew second. Hansen finally crossed home plate on a throwing error by Augustana's
Deryk Marks.
Lieser kept the Vikings firmly in check through the first four innings, allowing just two hits and retiring eight straight batters within that span.
The Huskies exploded for five runs in the fourth—riding six singles in the surge—to move ahead 6-0.
SCSU made it 7-0 in the fifth, scoring another on a Viking error.
Augustana eventually found a run in the eighth after
Brian Voigt scored on a Husky error produced by Heithoff. The run, though, would close scoring for both squads.
It was the second consecutive meeting between the two teams and seventh this season. The Huskies eliminated the Vikings from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament last week and have now beat Augustana four times this season.
The double-elimination Central Region Tournament runs through Sunday.
