ST. CLOUD, Minn. - The Augustana University baseball team (37-16) stayed alive in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Baseball Tournament Friday afternoon by defeating Minnesota State (34-16) 5-2 in their second game of the afternoon.
GAME ONE
The Vikings were seeing the ball well early in the game as a leadoff double from Tyler Field and a double from Fink one batter later resulted in the game's first run. Senior Patrick Fiala stepped up to the plate and built upon the Vikings early lead sending a 1-0 pitch to deep left center field and giving Augustana a 3-0 lead in the first inning.
After holding the Huskies hit less through three innings St. Cloud State was able to tie the game at three on one swing of the bat in the fourth. After a single and a double to start the inning Karl Sorensen tied the game with a home run to left field.
Augustana fell behind in the game for the first time in the fifth after SCSU hit a 2-run home run to take a 5-3 lead. The Huskies would score two runs in each of the next two innings and one run in the eighth to defeat the Vikings 10-3.
Pitchers of Record
Win - Reese Gregory (5-0): 9 IP, 8 hits, 3 runs, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts
Loss - Michael Letkewicz (5-2): 5.2 IP, 9 hits, 7 runs, 7 earned runs, 4 walks, 4 strikeout
GAME TWO
The Vikings got a great performance out of Lincoln Voss on the mound today. Voss went six solid innings allowing just one run and striking out six. Voss's strong performance and timely hitting by the Vikings helped Augustana stave off elimination and defeat Minnesota State 5-2
After a scoreless first inning Augustana took the early lead in the second inning. With one out in the inning Tyler Field got things started with a single to left field. After Lucas Wilber drew a walk, Field took third on a throwing error by the catcher. Justin Warne then broke the scoreless tie with a single to right field. The Vikings scored their second run of the inning on a single to center field making it 2-0 Vikings.
In the fifth inning Augustana got back-to-back singles from Alex Fink and Patrick Fiala to lead off the inning. After a sacrifice bunt from Alex Beals to move both runners into scoring position, Lucas Barry added insurance runs with one swing of the bat. When Barry saw his pitch he sent it deep over the right center field fence for a 3-run home run.
Minnesota State got on the board in the bottom of the sixth on a ground out by Taylor Branstad that scored Josh Wenzel who led off the inning with a double to right center.
Collin Lovell entered the game in the eighth with the bases loaded and no outs. After striking out the first batter he faced he induced a ground ball getting the 6-4 putout. The Mavericks got a run on the ground out. Lovell got out of the inning with strikeout looking that stranded MSU runners on the corners.
Voss' strong performance and timely hitting by the Vikings helped Augustana save off elimination and defeat Minnesota State 5-2
Pitchers of Record
Win - Lincoln Voss (6-2): 6 IP, 1 run, 1 earned run, 4 hits, 0 walks, 6 strikeouts
Loss - Josh Matheson (5-1): 4.1 IP, 5 runs, 5 earned runs, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts
Save - Collin Lovell )3): 2 IP, 0 hits, 0 runs, 0 walks, 4 strikeouts
Up Next
The Vikings will take on the winner of Northern State and Minnesota Duluth tomorrow afternoon at 3:30 p.m. The game will be played on Joe Faber Field.
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