AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team closed its Spring Break trip on Thursday morning with a 14-8 loss to Western New England University. The Cougars will bring a 5-10 overall record home to Minnesota.
Western New England scored a run on a RBI groundout in the top of the first, but the first big blow of the game was a grand slam from CJ Willis to give the Golden Bears an early 5-0 lead. A
Tyler Scheler lead-off single in the bottom of the second set the stage for a RBI single from
Brady Kenning to make it 5-1.
Single runs in the top of the third and fourth innings for Western New England pushed its lead to 7-1 before Minnesota Morris made a comeback.
Ashton Pauly was hit by a pitch to start the frame and
Ty Beasley followed with a single. A throwing error from the Western New England pitcher followed, allowing Pauly to come home. As the inning progressed, Beasley scored on a passed ball and
Alex Baumann and Scheler added RBI singles before another passed ball brought Baumann in to slice the deficit to 7-6.
The Golden Bear response was immediate in the top of the fifth. Jack Loftus cleared the bases with a double to make it 10-6 and Western New England added two more to up its lead to 12-6. Minnesota Morris was able to make one more comeback effort, scoring on a fielder's choice from
Evan Benson in the sixth and a RBI single from
Ethan Schmitz in the eighth. With their lead down to four, the Golden Bears dashed the Cougar hopes with a two-run homer from John Bova in the top of the ninth to go back up by six runs.
Joey Reinarts was charged with the loss to fall to 1-2 on the season. The Cougars ran through their bullpen in their final action in Florida, using six relievers in the contest.
Elias Harrington,
Max Binnicker, and
Owen Dylong all had scoreless outings. Scheler was 3-for-5 at the plate and Schmitz added two hits.
Field and weather conditions permitting, the next action for Minnesota Morris is a doubleheader on March 22 against Hamline University at Saint John's University in Collegeville starting at 3 p.m.