ST. PETER, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team suffered a 14-2 loss to Crown College in the team's UMAC opener on Tuesday. The Cougars and Polars traveled to Gustavus Adolphus College to locate a playable field and Crown quickly built a large lead thanks to a seven-run second inning. The loss drops the Cougars to 5-11 (0-1 UMAC) on the season.

Batting in the top of the first, David Steffen and Alex Baumann reached base with no outs, but Minnesota Morris was unable to scratch a run across. Crown then used a two-out rally in the bottom of the inning with Seth Betts drawing a walk before a double from Ashton Long drove him home to make it 1-0.

Things fell apart for the Cougars in the bottom of the second as Crown collected five hits in the inning and Minnesota Morris committed four errors. That combination led to seven runs in the inning for the Polars to take an 8-0 lead. 

Another unearned run scored in the bottom of the fourth for Crown to increase the lead to 9-0 before Minnesota Morris got on the board in the top of the fifth. Alex Goedhard led off with a single, followed by singles from Steffen and Baumann to load the bases. That led to an Ethan Schmitz RBI single and a walk to Tyler Scheler that forced home another run, cutting the deficit to 9-2.

The Polars tacked on a run in the bottom half of the fifth and the score remained 10-2 until the bottom of the eighth. In that frame, with a run already in, Howie Hatton hit a three-run homer to make it 14-2 and end the game one inning early.

Steffen and Baumann led the way from the top two spots in the batting order, notching two hits apiece. Josh Osten took the loss on the hill for the Cougars to fall to 1-3 on the season.

Minnesota Morris has switched venues with Bethany Lutheran College for the three-game set between the two teams this weekend. The Cougars will travel to Mankato on March 31-April 1. The first game in the series is scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m.