MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team posted a major victory on Wednesday in the team's long-delayed home opener, taking down the UMAC-leading Crown College Storm by a score of 5-4. Jacob Schaaf went the distance on the mound, striking out 13 Crown hitters and giving up only two earned runs to improve to 3-0 on the season. The win puts Minnesota Morris at 13-13 on the year and 4-7 in the UMAC.

The Cougars were up for this one from the start. Alex Baumann made a nice play on a sinking liner for the first out of the game and Schaaf followed that with a pair of strikeouts to bring the UMN Morris hitters up to the plate. Joe Pelle led the off the bottom of the first with a hustle play to get an infield single, while Logan Graves followed and sent a bunt toward third base that rode the line and stayed fair for another infield hit. Baumann then jacked his second home run of the season to the alley in left-center to make it 3-0 against Crown starting pitcher Aidan Volk-Specht.

The Storm responded with a lead-off triple by Kyle Schroedle in the top of the second. He would later score on a RBI groundout to make it 3-1. In the top of the third, Mason Brock was called safe on a bang-bang play at first base to keep the inning with two outs and Seth Betts then launched the tying home run to left to tie it up at 3-3.

Volk-Specht cruised through the middle innings until issuing a one-out walk to Branden Carlson in the bottom of the fifth. Pelle would then ground a ball toward short and Betts committed an error as he went for the force at second, resulting in runners on the corners. Graves then hit a tapper to first and Carlson sped home to beat the throw, giving Minnesota Morris a 4-3 edge.

Crown again relied on the long ball in the top of the seventh as Bailey Sarto launched a one-out homer to left, knotting the score again at 4-4. Schaaf was in trouble later in the inning, but was helped by a pick-off of Jack Becker to get the second out and then struck out Aaron Clogston to strand the go-ahead run at third base.

Though his pitch count was high, Schaaf kept the Cougars alive in the late innings and refused to yield against a potent Crown offense. After getting Schroedle to fly out weakly to right to start the ninth, Schaaf issued just his second walk to the day to Sarto. That threat was quickly extinguished when Rhys Dewick hit into an inning-ending double play.

Tyler Van Cise came on in relief in the eighth inning and kept Minnesota Morris off the board, but struggled with command in the ninth. David Steffen fought off the hard-throwing righty to earn a lead-off walk and Brady Kenning followed by being hit by a pitch to put two aboard. With the Crown infield pulled in and crashing home plate expecting the bunt, Carlson did indeed bunt, but had the ball pop up over the head of the third baseman and land fair for a single to load the bases with no outs. Back to the top of the order, Pelle came up with a two-strike single to right, driving in Steffen and sending the Cougars pouring out of the dugout to celebrate.

Minnesota Morris stays at home at Chizek Field for a three-game set this weekend against Martin Luther College. First up is a single game on Friday afternoon beginning at 3 p.m.