SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The Augustana baseball team split a pair of games on Friday afternoon, winning 7-3 and losing 9-8 to Minnesota Crookston on Friday night at Ronken Field.
Records
Augustana 36-13, 29-7 NSIC
Minnesota Crookston 26-22, 19-17 NSIC
Game one: Augustana 7, Minnesota Crookston 3
Troy Berg went 2 for 3 with three RBI and two runs scored to lead the offense.
Kobe Eikmeier added a hit and two RBI while
Jake Lundquist hit a home run and scored a pair of runs.
Ethan Hoffman (6-2) went five innings, allowing a pair of runs and striking out six in his final regular season start.
Jack Sutton allowed a run and collected a strikeout in the sixth and
Jadon Bast threw a scoreless seventh inning with a strikeout.
Berg opened the scoring with a leadoff home run in the second inning and, two batters later,
Jake Lundquist hit a home run of his own to make it 2-0 AU. In the third, Berg came back around and delivered a two-out, two-run double to double the lead at 4-0.
After the bases loaded later in the inning,
Joshua Koskie drew a walk to score another run and Eikmeier drove in two more with a single to put the Vikings ahead 7-0. The Golden Eagles scored a pair of runs in the fourth and one more in the sixth to round out the scoring.
Game two: Minnesota Crookston 9, Augustana 8
Carter Heinsch had three hits and
Brandon Weigel had two hits, three RBI, two runs scored and drew a pair of walks in an extra-inning loss.
Drew Ball allowed three runs and struck out a pair in four innings of work after earning the start.
Josiah Petersen entered in the fifth, striking out four in his first inning of work and five total in 2 2/3 innings of action while allowing a pair of runs.
Adam Diedrich allowed four runs, one earned, in three innings while
Will Henry got the final out of the 10th.
A two-run, two-out dropped fly ball in centerfield allowed the Vikings to score a pair in the first inning for an early advantage. The Golden Eagles marched back with three runs in the fourth and another in the fifth to take a two-run lead.
Berg reached on a fielding error to lead off the sixth inning and stole second to get in scoring position. After moving to third on a ground out,
Carter McPeak brought him in on another groundout to bring the Vikings within a run. They would get that run back in the top of the and two more in the eighth to take a 7-3 lead.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the eighth inning,
Kobe Eikmeier beat out an infield single to bring the Vikings within three. In one of the biggest moments of the season, Weigel followed with a bases-clearing double to tie the game at 7-7. That would hold until the 10th inning when a pair of UMC runs gave them a lead. The Vikings scored a run in the bottom of the inning, but would strand the bases loaded to finish the split.
Senior day will commence on Saturday prior to a 1 p.m. regular season finale.
