Box Score

Some untimely Cougar errors and a late rally from Presentation allowed the Saints to escape Morris with a 13-8 victory yesterday at Cougar Prairie Field.  The Saints used a six-run eighth inning to pin the loss on UMM starter Nik Randall, who pitched well up to that point.

Junior Josh Ledin, first year Drew Lundquist and Randall led UMM with two RBIs a piece.  But these offensive fireworks were muted by a six defensive errors.  A few of these errors resulted in three unearned runs which gave the Saints extra at-bats that would prove costly over the length of the game.

Both teams got out of the box quickly.  Presentation scored four times in the top of the first and the Cougars answered back with two of their own in the bottom half.

The Saints would add three more runs over the next three innings.

UMM stormed back in the bottom half of the seventh inning.  Shortstop Matt Peterson led off with a double, followed by a single from second baseman Ian Olson.  Peterson would then score on a wild pitch.  Randall then tripled home second baseman Ian Olson.  Ledin doubled to left center, scoring Randall.  Senior Scott Barta hit a sacrifice fly to send home Ledin.  Suddenly the game was tied at 7.

But Randall, who had pitched seven strong innings, was tiring.  The Saints touched him up for five runs in the inning before sophomore Ted Gray came on in relief.

The Cougars tried to rally once more but only managed a single run in the ninth.

The loss drops Randall's record to 0-3 on the year.

After the game, head coach Mark Fohl echoed his comments from last weekend in Mankato.  We're still continuing to do some things well, but we're not putting together all the parts of our game.  We hit well today and pitched well too.  But our defense let us down."

The Cougars travel to the Cities this weekend for three games with Northwestern College.

NOTE: The site of the Presentation game was switched the day before.  Next Tuesday, the Cougars scheduled home game will be played in Aberdeen, S.D.