MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team dropped one of its final home games of 2021 to visiting Valley City State University on Wednesday afternoon at Chizek Field. The Vikings pounced on Cougar pitching early on and scored in all but one inning of an 18-3 victory. The loss drops UMN Morris to 5-19 overall on the year.

An error from Minnesota Morris in the first inning opened the door for a three-run lead for Valley City State after one. A big blow came in the second inning when David Demeter put a charge into one and turned a 4-0 lead into 7-0 with one swing of the bat. The Cougars were able to chip away slightly with a two-out rally in the bottom of the second, starting with a double from Noah Kloss and then a single from Branden Carlson to bring him in.

Valley City State scored twice more in the third, with a response from Minnesota Morris to soften the blow. After Alex Baumann reached on an error to start the inning, singles from Tyler Carper and Evan Benson got him home to leave the score at 9-2.

The Vikings connected on three solo home runs in the top of the fourth and then had a two-run blast in the fifth to make it 14-2. The final run from Minnesota Morris came in the bottom of the frame as Joe Pelle hit a sacrifice fly to drive home Baumann from third.

Carper and Kloss led the Cougars bats with two hits apiece. Nathen Carlin (1-4) was charged with the loss after allowing three runs (two earned) in the top of the first.

Minnesota Morris heads back into UMAC play on Saturday with a doubleheader at the College of St. Scholastica starting at 1:30 p.m.