ASHLAND, Wis. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team closed out the 2021 season on a high note on Sunday, sweeping a UMAC doubleheader from Northland College by scores of 16-3 and 11-6.
The Cougars close out the 2021 season with an overall record of 7-23 (5-11 UMAC).
Game One: Minnesota Morris 16, Northland 3 (7 innings)
A complete game from
Brian Vanyo and the combination of 13 hits against Northland pitching and five Lumber Jack errors allowed Minnesota Morris to breeze to a win in the opening game of the afternoon. Vanyo (3-5) went 7.0 innings, giving up only five hits and two earned runs while striking out six.
Northland took its only lead of the game in the bottom of the first with a lead-off double that eventually led to a sacrifice fly to go up, 1-0. That was answered by the Cougars in the second inning, showing patience at the plate as
Josh Doss and
Tyler Carper walked to lead off the inning.
Julien Shadle singled in Doss to tie the score at 1-1.
A litany of Northland errors pushed five Minnesota Morris runs across in the third inning to take a commanding 6-1 lead. The lone hit of the inning came off the bat of
Noah Kloss and the errors that followed opened up a big margin for the Cougars. That lead then grew in the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly from Kloss and RBIs from Doss and Carper to extend out to a 10-1 advantage.
The Lumber Jacks scored twice in the fifth inning, but that was answered by a pair of runs from Minnesota Morris in the top of the sixth. Singles from
Tyler Rowland and
Evan Benson made it a 12-3 game and Northland went down in order in the bottom of the sixth.
That set the stage for the seventh when the Cougars added four more runs on five hits to take a 16-3 edge. Doss, Carper, Rowland and Benson all had RBIs in the inning. Northland was unable to cut into the deficit in the bottom of the seventh and the game was ended early via the mercy rule.
Benson and Kloss each ended with three hits in the game, followed by a pair from Doss and Shadle. Doss and Carper also drew two walks in the contest.
Game Two: Minnesota Morris 11, Northland 6
After going ahead, 2-0, Minnesota Morris gave up a six-run second inning to Northland, but shut down the Lumber Jacks after that and fought all the way back with an electric ninth-inning comeback to get the win in game two.
Nathen Carlin (2-5) came on in relief early and went the rest of the way, ending with 7.1 innings of shutout work while striking out eight.
Joe Pelle started the scoring in the top of the first with a RBI single to plate
Alex Baumann. In the second, it was Baumann who delivered a RBI single to score
Lucas Athey and make it 2-0.
Doss ran into trouble on the bump in the second inning as Northland scored five runs against him before he was lifted for Carlin. The Lumber Jacks scored once more in the bottom of the second to take a 6-2 lead into the third.
Minnesota Morris began to work its way back into the game with a pair of runs scored off of a
Julien Shadle RBI single in the third inning to make it 6-4. Benson added a sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth to pull the Cougars within a single run, 6-5. The score would remain there for four scoreless innings, taking the game to the top of the ninth.
An error from Northland on the first batter of the inning opened the floodgates in the ninth.
Logan Graves followed with an infield single and another single from Athey gave the Cougars a 7-6 lead. Later in the inning, the bases were loaded and Baumann delivered the game-clinching grand slam to push UMN Morris out to an 11-6 edge. Northland would go down in order in the ninth to wrap it up.
Athey ended the game 4-for-4 with four runs scored. Baumann, Kloss, Pelle, and Graves all had two hits apiece.
