MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team split its opening two contests of the 2023 season on Monday night against Macalester College at U.S. Bank Stadium. The Cougars roared to a 9-1 victory in the first game of the doubleheader before the Scots recovered for a 7-4 victory in game two.
Minnesota Morris will finish up its two-day excursion to U.S. Bank Stadium tomorrow night with a doubleheader against Augsburg University that gets underway at 9:30 p.m.
Game 1: Minnesota Morris 9, Macalester 1
The Cougars jumped on Macalester pitching early in the game, establishing a 7-1 lead after three innings and riding that out to the finish.
Joey Reinarts went 4.0 innings and got the win, while
Brian Vanyo and
William Loesch each had strong outings to finish things off.
Ty Beasley led off the top of the first with a walk and he was brought home by a two-out double off the bat of
Ben Meuser. Next up,
David Steffen singled in Meuser to make it 2-0 after one.
Minnesota Morris drew three walks in a row to start the second inning, putting
Ethan Schmitz,
Keegan Jonas, and
Owen Dylong aboard. A double-play ball from Beasley still managed to score Schmitz and Jonas then raced home on a wild pitch to make it 4-0.
Macalester got one run back in the bottom of the second, but the Minnesota Morris offense continued to hum along in the third. With the bases loaded, Schmitz drew a walk to force a run in for a 5-1 lead. Jonas later had a RBI groundout after a pitching change, driving in Steffen. The inning ended with a single from Dylong bringing in
Evan Benson and Schmitz before Dylong was tagged out trying to advance to second.
The Cougars added one more insurance run in the top of the sixth. With runners in scoring position, a long fly from
Tyler Scheler served as a sacrifice fly to score Dylong for an 8-1 advantage.
Meuser and Steffen each had two hits in the game for Minnesota Morris. The Cougars drew 10 walks as a team, with Beasley, Schmitz, and Dylong each earning free passes twice.
Game 2: Macalester 7, Minnesota Morris 4
The back half of the doubleheader was a swing and a miss for Minnesota Morris as Macalester struck out 17 Cougars in seven innings of work. After the Cougars took a 3-2 lead at the end of two innings, the Scots put up five runs in the fourth and never looked back.
Down 2-0 after the top of the first, Minnesota Morris knotted the game back up at 2-2 on a single from Steffen that drove in Scheler and
Alex Baumann.
Elias Harrington worked a 1-2-3 top of the second and a pair of errors from Macalester allowed
Aidan Moran to score in the bottom half, gifting the Cougars a 3-2 edge.
The game got away from Minnesota Morris in the fourth inning. Macalester started the frame with three straight singles to load the bases before a double scored two and ended Harrington's night with the Scots in front, 4-3. As the inning continued, Macalester added onto its lead with a RBI single, a double steal, and a wild pitch.
The pitching of Peter Aspholm wrapped up the game for Macalester as he recorded all nine of his outs via strikeout in the closing stages of the game. A Steffen solo home run in the bottom of the seventh brought the game closer, but the Cougars were down to their final two outs at that point and Aspholm got Benson and Schmitz swinging to end it.
Steffen led the offense in game two with a 2-for-4 night that included three RBIs.
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