MINNEAPOLIS – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team lost both games of a doubleheader against Augsburg University at U.S. Bank Stadium on Tuesday night. Despite an early lead, the Cougars ended with a 6-5 loss in the first game of the night and the Auggies then handed UMN Morris a 5-2 defeat in game two to drop the Cougars to 1-3 on the season.

The Cougars will begin their Spring Break trip to Florida on Thursday with a doubleheader against Dominican University (Ill.) starting at 1:45 p.m. (EST) in Davenport, Fla.

Game 1: Augsburg 6, Minnesota Morris 5
After putting up three runs in the first inning, Minnesota Morris saw Augsburg take a 5-3 lead at the end of four. The Cougars managed to fight back and tie the game up at 5-5 in the sixth, but the Auggies walked it off in the bottom of the seventh.

The game started well for Minnesota Morris. Ty Beasley and Alex Baumann led off with singles before Tyler Scheler walked to load the bases with no outs. Ben Meuser and Ethan Schmitz drove in runs later in the frame on sacrifice flies before Zach Froman hit a single to drive in Scheler and make it 3-0.

Augsburg flipped the game on its head with four runs in the bottom of the third on four hits and a pair of Minnesota Morris errors. The Auggies then used small ball to manufacture a run in the bottom of the fourth with a lead-off single followed by a pair of groundouts that moved the runner to third before a soft single drove the runner in to make it 5-3.

Minnesota Morris got one run back in the top of the fifth. Ashton Pauly led off with a single and a Baumann double with one away moved Pauly to third. A Scheler RBI groundout made it 5-4. In the sixth, Evan Benson had a single to start the inning and Schmitz followed with a double. Benson would come in to score with a sacrifice bunt to knot the game up at 5-5.

A pair of errors to start off the bottom of the seventh was followed by a walk to load the bases. The winning run for Augsburg came off the bat of Adam Marshall to drive in Michael Weiss, who also earned the win in relief for the Auggies.

Josh Osten took the loss for Minnesota Morris despite not giving up an earned run in 2.1 innings of relief. Baumann led the offense with a 2-for-4 showing at the plate.

Game 2: Augsburg 5, Minnesota Morris 2
The Cougar offense never really got rolling in the late game, managing just four hits in the contest. 

Six of Augsburg's seven hits in the game came from the top four in the batting order and it was that segment of the lineup that staked the Auggies to a 3-0 lead in the top of the third. Steven Salz capped the inning with a two-run homer.

An error, a hit batter, and a walk loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the third and Minnesota Morris managed to scratch two runs across to trim its deficit to 3-2. 

That would prove to be as close as the Cougars could get on the night, however. Augsburg added onto its lead with a run in the top of the fifth and then tacked on another with a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh to make it 5-2. Other than a Froman single in the bottom of the seventh, Minnesota Morris didn't put up much resistance in the late innings as the Auggies closed out the win.

Besides Froman, Beasley, David Steffen, and Owen Dylong had hits in the game for the Cougars. Breckin Silvain was charged with the loss after throwing three innings and giving up three runs (two earned).