MSU baseball takes series over Concordia with a split
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minot State University baseball team claimed its second straight Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference series win with an offensive outburst of four runs in the fifth inning on Monday to take the first game of a doubleheader against Concordia-St. Paul at Barnes Field.
Coming off a pair of victories on Sunday, 12-0 and 6-5, over CSP, the Beavers (11-4, 6-2 NSIC) took game 3 of the series 6-4 and came just a couple runs short, losing 3-2 in game 4, of getting the program’s first four-game sweep since 2014 when MSU took four straight on the road against the University of Mary.
“We came out with some serious energy again today,” MSU coach Scott Eul said in a press release. “If we play like this, sweeps will come. I’m really happy with how we are playing.”
In the first game on Monday, the Beavers jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the third on an RBI single by Jordan Schulz and a fielding error allowed another run to score.
The Golden Bears (10-10, 4-4 NSIC) regrouped with a pair of runs in the bottom half and took the lead in the fourth with Zach Elder hitting his second solo home run of the game.
Four runs on five hits and an error in the fifth pushed the Beavers into the lead for good. Sean Alp gave MSU the lead with two RBIs on a single to left field, then a Michael Borst single and a Celestino Rodriguez double drove in two more runs, 6-3.
Beavers’ starter Justin Demary went six innings and improved to 3-1 on the season with the win. He gave up a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth to allow CSP back to within two runs at 6-4, but freshman Dylan Roach went three up and three down in the seventh for his first collegiate save.
“Dylan came in and hammered down the save in the first game,” Eul said in a press release. “It was great to see a freshman step up in a big situation and make plays.”
Alp, Schulz, Rodriguez and Trevaun Smith all finished with two hits for the Beavers. The same couldn’t be said after the second game of the doubleheader, as no MSU player followed up with a multi-hit performance in game 2.
Regardless, the Beavers jumped out to a 2-0 lead again. This time on a two-run single by Rodriguez in the top of the first. But, that’s all the offense MSU could generate.
The CSP pitching duo of Connor Hurley and Jake Kounkel gave up seven hits and held the Beavers scoreless after the first inning. Trying to match was MSU starter Kendal Daniels. He threw 7.2 innings and surrendered three runs on nine hits.
“(Daniels) has struggled in a couple starts, but bounced back today,” Eul said in a press release. “He threw hard and had a few pitches working. It was nice to see him step up like that. Their guys threw well for them too. Runs were tough to come by.”
Two runs in the bottom of the eighth on a one-out double to left center by Carter Schmidt pushed the Golden Bears into the lead, 3-2. It was Schmidt’s third hit of the contest.
The Beavers managed to get the tying run on base in the ninth inning after a full count lead-off walk to Paul Vogelsang, but pinch runner Alexander Mack was thrown out trying to steal second base.
MSU has one more road doubleheader against Minnesota Crookston on Wednesday, starting at 1 p.m., before playing at Corbett Field for the first time this season on Saturday and Sunday against Winona State. The home opener doubleheaders are scheduled to be played at noon and 2:30 p.m. on both days.