Minot Metros center fielder Henrik Evanoff tracks down a fly ball during the second game of a doubleheader against Beulah on Wednesday, June 3, at Jack Hoeven Park. Nathan Beitler/MDN

The Minot Metros lost three of its top arms in terms of innings thrown from last year’s squad, yet still felt confident that its starting rotation would be their strong suit early in the season.

Owen Sundahl spoke truth to that with his first start of the season with the Metros. Minot’s Game 1 starter went the distance, tossing all seven innings without allowing a run. He scattered four hits, struck out eight and walked six, and his defense played errorless baseball behind him in Minot’s 7-0 victory over Beulah on Wednesday, June 3, at Jack Hoeven Park. The Metros completed the sweep of the Cyclones with a 15-9 victory in Game 2, rallying with eight runs late.

Sundahl worked himself out of trouble throughout the game without allowing a Beulah baserunner to touch home plate, stranding 12 runners on base. The Cyclones loaded the bases in the first inning with two outs, but Sundahl got Dayson Ronyak to pop out to Brady Vigested at first base.

The Cyclones again threatened in the fourth with runners on first and second and two outs. Unphased, Sundahl induced an inning-ending ground ball to second off the bat of Ethan Wolstenholm.

When Beulah’s Chase Hetzler doubled to lead off the fifth, Sundahl responded with a pair of strikeouts and a ground out. With his pitch count approaching 100 and facing another bases-loaded dilemma with two outs in the seventh, Sundahl preserved his shutout bid, striking out Ronyak to end the game. Sundahl finished with 101 pitches.

“For Owen, it’s just the ability to not really care what’s happening, whether it be a walk or a hit by pitch or give up a hit,” Metros coach Craig Schmich said. “He found ways to get out of it, came up with some big strikeouts in big moments and the defense made some good plays behind him.”

Wednesday’s outing for Sundahl accounted for just about half of the number of innings he threw for the Metros all of last season, the majority coming in relief. He pitched in 10 games last season with just one start, logging 14 2/3 innings. His eight strikeouts surpassed the six total punchouts he recorded in those 14 2/3 innings.

“Owen is one of those guys who pitched a little bit for us last year and was more of a relief option for us last year,” Schmich said. “Coming into this season and looking at where we were at on the pitching side of things, I thought that Owen was going to be one of the guys that was going to have to start for us. He’s a guy that throws a lot of strikes, competes well in the zone and he did a really good job for us today.”

The Metros (4-0) had his back in the field and in the batter’s box. Minot strung together 10 hits, scoring three runs in both the second and fourth as well as another for good measure in the sixth.

Carter Bush got the offense going with an RBI triple in the second to bring home Cole Deaver. Brody Johnson followed with an RBI single and would come around to score on one of Beulah’s four errors in the game.

Bush registered his second extra-base hit of the contest in the fourth, doubling and scoring Grady Weppler. Johnson added his second and third RBIs with a single to right field to give Minot a 6-0 lead.

Bush, Johnson and Vigested all finished with a pair of hits.

The nightcap was much more of a slugfest between the two teams. Minot and Beulah combined for 24 runs and 24 hits as well as 11 errors, as all seven innings featured at least one run being scored.

The Metros trailed 8-7 entering the fifth before outscoring the Cyclones 8-1 down the stretch. Minot took advantage of back-to-back Beulah errors in the fifth to grab a 10-8 lead. The Metros loaded the bases with no outs and Ty Iverson brought in two runs when his ground ball to short couldn’t be cleanly handled. Another error at short on the next play allowed Iverson to score.

Sundahl drew a bases-loaded walk in the sixth to force in a run and Vigested cleared the bases with a three-run triple to right on the first pitch he saw from Chase Hetzler. Garrett Nikitenko capped off the scoring with an RBI single.

“Not our best brand of baseball in Game 2,” Schmich said. “We made some errors early in the game, allowed them to stick around. They had a lead on us and we had to be the team that turned it on. Luckily for us, we came up with the big hits when we needed to, especially in that sixth inning scoring that 5-spot to really put us ahead. That was a big spot for us.”

The Cyclones took the lead on three separate occasions, the final time coming in the fourth. Connor Schepp tied the game 6-6 with a two-run double and Brayden Mehrer gave Beulah the lead on a sacrifice fly. Zyon Phelps tacked on an eighth run with an RBI single to score Schepp.

A turning point in the game came in the top of the fifth, where Beulah had a chance to grow its lead with the bases loaded and two out. The Metros made a pitching change, electing for Rylan Schaan to get them out of the inning without falling further behind. Schaan’s day on the mound lasted all of three pitches – all for strikes – as he got Tate Jordan swinging on an 0-2 count.

“That kind of built the momentum from there because after that we go out and score a 3-spot to take the lead and then go score that 5-spot in the sixth inning,” Schmich said. “Rylan helped us out and got us going a little bit there.”

Beulah’s six errors proved much more costly than Minot’s five miscues in the field. Whereas all but one of Beulah’s runs were earned, 12 of Minot’s runs were considered unearned.

“We made some errors that cost us a little bit, but for us, offensively, if they are going to give us extra outs, we need to take advantage of it,” Schmich said. “We can’t be a team that we get the error and get on base somehow and we don’t find a way to score. That’s the biggest thing for us is that if they are going to give us that extra out or two, we have to take advantage of it and our boys did a really good job of that today.”

Iverson and Vigested both finished with a game-high three RBIs. Sundahl, Iverson and Nikitenko all recorded multi-hit games. Ten different Metros players scored runs.

Andrew Soine led the Cyclones with a 4-for-5 performance at the plate. He drove in a run and scored once. Schepp finished 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Phelps went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a run scored.

The Metros close out their five-game non-conference slate with a single 9-inning game at Renville County on Friday, June 5, at 5 p.m.