AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team ran its winning streak to three games with a 21-7 blowout victory over Fairleigh Dickinson University-Florham on Tuesday morning. The Cougars now stand at 4-8 on the season.

The game was actually scoreless through two innings before each team got on the board in the third. A lack of control from the FDU-Florham pitching staff was the story of the game and it revved into action in that frame. A one-out double from David Steffen was followed by a bean ball to Ashton Pauly. Both runners moved up on wild pitches and another wild pitch brought Steffen in for a 1-0 Cougar lead. Later in the inning, a Ben Meuser single scored Pauly and Alex Baumann for a 3-0 edge.

FDU-Florham came back, scoring on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third and then plating four runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 5-3 lead on Minnesota Morris. The Cougars cut their deficit in half in the top of the fifth, taking advantage of a throwing error from the Devils to have Steffen race home from second to make it 5-4.

The game shifted dramatically in the top of the sixth as Minnesota Morris scored 10 runs on just four hits. FDU-Florham helped the Cougar cause by issuing five walks and hitting two batters to keep runners in motion throughout the inning. Keegan Jonas had a RBI double to score Ben Leal and tie the game at 5-5. The go-ahead RBI went to Pauly as he was hit by a pitch again, scoring Jonas for a 6-5 lead. Eight more runs were scored with two outs in the inning. Tyler Scheler drove in two with a RBI single, Meuser followed with a RBI single that made it 9-5, walks to Leal and Jonas forced home two more runs, and Evan Benson finished the frame with a bases-clearing double that increased the margin to 14-5.

The Cougars added a sacrifice fly from Meuser and a RBI single from Leal in the top of the seventh to make it 16-5. FDU-Florham kept the game alive by scoring twice in the bottom of the seventh, but Minnesota Morris put the game away with a five-spot in the eighth. RBIs in the final inning went to Pauly, Jonas, and Ty Beasley, while another run scored on a wild pitch and one more came home on an error from the Devils.

Ryan Wilhelm threw 3.1 innings of relief to pick up the win. Multi-hit games were notched by Steffen, Scheler, Meuser, Leal, Jonas, and Benson. Baumann scored four runs on the day.

Minnesota Morris takes on Mitchell College in a doubleheader tomorrow in Davenport, Fla. with the first contest set for 2:45 p.m. (EDT).