SUPERIOR, Wis. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team won the opening game of a doubleheader with the University of Wisconsin-Superior, 12-0, for the team's 11th straight victory. The Yellowjackets recovered in game two however, winning by a score of 8-2 to claim the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Cougars for the season and nabbing the No. 4 seed in next week's UMAC Tournament.

Minnesota Morris finishes the 2022 season with a record of 22-14, breaking a program record for victories in a single season that had been held by the 1995 and 1996 squads.

Game One: Minnesota Morris 12, UW-Superior 0 (7 innings)
Jacob Schaaf stymied a third straight UMAC opponent with a complete game shutout of UW-Superior to start the day. The freshman allowed only five hits and walked just one while improving to 5-0 on the season. The Cougar offense burst out of the gates with four runs in the first, three more in the second, and then put the game away with five in sixth to finish things up early.

Three of the first four batters of the game reached for Minnesota Morris, leading to a RBI single for Ty Beasley. Evan Benson then was hit by a pitch to force a run home and David Steffen singled two score two more and a 4-0 lead before Schaaf even took the hill.

A 1-2-3 first inning by Schaaf set the stage for the Cougar offense again in the second inning and Tyler Scheler hit a three-run bomb after Alex Baumann and Joe Pelle reached base. 

The score remained 7-0 until the top of the sixth. Two were aboard for Benson and a base hit back up the middle drove in Logan Graves for an 8-0 lead. The next hitter, Steffen, cleared the bases with a three-run shot. Pelle tacked on another RBI single before the inning ended for a 12-0 edge. 

The Yellowjackets needed at least three runs to keep the game going, but Schaaf allowed only one base runner in each of the next two innings and stranded both of them.

Pelle led the Cougars with a 3-for-5 day at the plate, while Steffen drove in a game-high five runs.

Game Two: UW-Superior 8, Minnesota Morris 2
After posting their 11th straight win, the Cougars came up one win short of the UMAC Tournament after UW-Superior defended its home field in the season finale. Minnesota Morris scored a run in the first and fifth innings, but the Yellowjackets scored multiple runs in response in the bottom of those two frames to pull away.

The game started out promisingly, with Pelle leading off with a double and a UW-Superior error leading to the senior racing home from second to give the Cougars a 1-0 advantage. In the bottom of the first, Nick Fredrikson was walked to start the inning and then went to second with two outs on a balk. That put him in scoring position for Isaac Fugere to drive him in and tying the game at 1-1. Sam McNosky singled to keep the inning alive and Christian Garcia then doubled both runners home to put the Yellowjackets ahead, 3-1.

Minnesota Morris was unable to push any runs across in the top of the second, leaving two aboard. UW-Superior then cruised through the next two frames before the Cougars pulled closer in the top of the fifth. A lead-off single for Branden Carlson led to a pair of two-out hits from Baumann and Scheler to bring him home and slice the deficit to 3-2. Unfortunately UMN Morris was unable to tie or take the lead as relief pitcher Ryan Rodriguez induced a pop out into foul territory to end the threat. 

UW-Superior put pressure on the Cougars with a lead-off walk and a bunt single to start the bottom of the fifth and Fugere would provide a big three-run blast as part of a five-run inning for the Yellowjackets to increase their advantage to 8-2. That was plenty of leeway for Rodriguez, who mowed Minnesota Morris down in order in the sixth and seventh. Though Scheler doubled in the eighth, the Cougars were unable to score a run. In the ninth, a lead-off single by Noah Kloss was eliminated by a double play and UW-Superior closed it out with a six-run victory.

Scheler and Carlson each collected two hits in the game. Joey Reinarts went 4.1 innings but was charged with the loss. Tyler Carper threw the final 3.0 innings for the Cougars and gave up just a single hit.