DAVENPORT, Fla. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball picked up its first win of the season on Sunday with a doubleheader split against SUNY Canton. The Cougars took the opener, 5-0, on a combined two-hitter from Jacob Schaaf and Colin Lindgren. SUNY Canton was able to fend off a Cougar comeback in the second game to win, 4-3.

Minnesota Morris plays Plattsburgh State in a make-up game on Monday night at 7 p.m. (EDT) at NorthEast Regional Park in Davenport, Fla.

Game One: Minnesota Morris 5, SUNY Canton 0
The opening game of the day featured a rock-solid performance on the hill from starting pitcher Jacob Schaaf and relief pitcher Colin Lindgren. SUNY Canton went down in order twice and collected only two hits in the contest. After taking a quick lead in the top of the first, Minnesota Morris pulled away in the late stages to get its first win of the season.

Tyler Scheler manufactured the first run of the day by drawing a two-out walk in the top of the first and then advancing to second on a wild pitch before coming on a single from Ben Meuser for a 1-0 advantage. Schaaf did almost all the work himself in the bottom of the inning, striking out the opening batter, then inducing back-to-back infield tappers for easy putouts.

SUNY Canton looked to tie things up in the bottom of the third when the Roos were fortunate to have a swinging strikeout hit the plate and bounce away from Michael Nezerka to allow Ty Reed to reach. He then stole second before Schaaf struck out consecutive batters and got another groundout back to the mound to end the frame.

Minnesota Morris began to pull away in the top of the fifth when Nezerka led off with a single and was followed by Logan Graves getting hit by a pitch to put two on. Both came in to score when Scheler doubled to left field for a 3-0 lead.

The Cougars tacked on more insurance in the sixth with a lead-off double from Evan Benson and a bunt single from Brendan Carlson. Ethan Schmitz drove in Benson with a RBI groundout for a 4-0 edge.

Lindgren relieved Schaaf in the sixth and worked around a two-out error to keep SUNY Canton off the scoreboard. With the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, Benson hit a sacrifice fly to deep center to score Alex Baumann for a 5-0 lead. Lindgren locked things down in the bottom of the seventh to cap off the Cougar victory.

Minnesota Morris collected eight hits in the game, with two apiece from Baumann and Scheler. Schaaf went to 1-0 with six strikeouts over 5.0 innings, while Lindgren gave up just one hit and struck out three in 2.0 innings of relief.

Game Two: SUNY Canton 4, Minnesota Morris 3
It was SUNY Canton's turn to come out quickly in the second matchup of the day. The Roos had two aboard for Zach Miner in the top of the first and his triple to right-center put Canton on top. Miner was in the middle of the next SUNY Canton run as well. With two out and two on, Miner hit a dipping liner into left that glanced off Benson's glove, allowing a third run to come in for the Roos.

Jackson Troiano sat down the first six Cougar hitters of the game and was in cruise control for three innings before running into trouble in the fourth. Scheler led the inning off with a sharp double, followed by an infield single from Meuser. With one out and both men in scoring position, Tyler Carper tripled down the right-field line to score two and bring Minnesota Morris within a run. The next hitter, Ethan Schmitz, put it in almost the exact same spot and ended up on third base as well, driving in Carper to leave the game knotted at 3-3.

In the top of the sixth, a two-out, pinch-hit single from Noah Reyes drove in Alphonse Fuca to put the Roos ahead again at 4-3. Minnesota Morris had no response in the sixth inning, but nearly came back in the bottom of the seventh. With runners on the corners and one out, Pelle hit a grounder up the middle of the infield. If he had been called safe at first, Graves would have come home for the tying run. However, on a bang-bang call, Pelle was called out to complete a double play that ended the game.

Minnesota Morris outhit SUNY Canton, 9-5, in the game, with Schmitz going 2-for-3. David Steffen went 3.0 innings to start the game for the Cougars, followed by 2.0 innings of relief from Ryan Wilhelm in which the senior struck out two and didn't allow a hit. Cole Mammenga suffered the loss as he threw the final 2.0 innings and gave up the one run for SUNY Canton in the sixth.