DAVENPORT, Fla. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team suffered a pair of defeats on Thursday afternoon on the first day of the team's Spring Break trip. The Cougars fell to Dominican University (Ill.) by scores of 11-1 and 7-2.

The trip continues tomorrow with a doubleheader against John Carroll University starting at 3 p.m. (EST) in Auburndale, Fla.

Game One: Dominican 11, Minnesota Morris 1
A close game through four innings was completely changed when Dominican erupted for eight runs in the fifth inning to help pull away for a 10-run victory in the opener. 

The Stars had taken a 2-0 lead after three innings of play with single runs in the second and third. Minnesota Morris sliced that deficit in half with a lead-off home run from Alex Baumann in the bottom of the fourth to make it 2-1. Ben Meuser was later walked and advanced to third with two away but was stranded to leave the Cougars down a run entering the fifth inning.

Dominican connected for seven hits and also earned a pair of walks in the fifth inning to open up a large advantage in the ballgame. The Stars then tacked on one final insurance run in the top of the seventh.

Brian Vanyo took the loss despite a solid outing in which he gave up just three hits and two runs (none earned) in 3.0 innings. The Cougars managed just four hits against a pair of Dominican pitchers. Baumann was 2-for-3 in the game and David Steffen and Ethan Schmitz also collected hits.

Game Two: Dominican 7, Minnesota Morris 2
After two scoreless innings, Dominican posted a five-run third and then added two more in the fourth. Though the Stars had just four hits in the game, the Minnesota Morris pitching staff issued six walks and hit three batters to help give DU all the offense they would need in the second game of the day.

Max Binnicker (0-1) started well before running into trouble in the third. With two down and two on, Dominican managed three consecutive singles against the freshman to take a 3-0 lead and a hit batter then loaded the bases. Two walks from Elias Harrington forced in a pair of runs to make it 5-0. In the bottom of the fourth, a two-out error from the Cougars allowed a pair of runs to score and increase the Dominican lead to 7-0.

Minnesota Morris put two runs up in the top of the sixth. Steffen had a one-out single, followed by a walk from Ashton Pauly and a passed ball that moved each runner into scoring position. Ty Beasley hit a two-out single to bring both home and make it 7-2 before the Stars ended the frame.

Other than the hits in the sixth from Steffen and Beasley, Tyler Scheler had the only other Cougar hit in the contest.