ST. PAUL, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team came up empty on Saturday in their attempt to sweep the three-game set from the University of Wisconsin-Superior. In a fast-moving game with both pitching staffs mowing through the batting orders, one inning of offense from the Yellowjackets proved to be the difference in a 3-0 win. The loss for the Cougars drops the team to 11-13 (6-3 UMAC).
Starting pitchers
Joey Reinarts of Minnesota Morris and Matt Tappe of UW-Superior were cruising in the early going. Reinarts retired the first 10 UW-Superior hitters before getting into some trouble in the fourth.
Alex Baumann helped get the Cougars out of it by initiating a rundown between third and home for the final out of the inning.
On the other side, the best scoring opportunity for Minnesota Morris came in the bottom of the third when
Evan Benson and
David Steffen led off with singles. The Yellowjackets kept the game scoreless by getting Baumann to line out to shortstop before an inning-ending double play.Â
UW-Superior took the lead with one out in the top of the sixth. Nick Dagostino started it with a single and Peyton Steiner put a ground through the right side of the infield to get Dagostino to third. Ben Rhodes then singled to center for the first run before Christian Garcia drove in two with a double to deep center field for a 3-0 lead.
Reinarts got out of the inning from there, but Minnesota Morris was never able to dig out of the three-run hole. The Cougars left two runners stranded in the bottom of the sixth. After
Alex Goedhard reached on an error to start the seventh inning, Tappe retired the final nine hitters he faced to polish off the complete-game victory.
Steffen was the lone Cougars with two hits in the game. Baumann,
Ty Beasley, and Benson had the other hits for Minnesota Morris.
Reinarts (3-3) was solid in defeat, going 6.1 innings and giving up five hits and three runs.
Breckin Silvain struck out two and allowed just a single walk in his 2.2 innings of relief.
Minnesota Morris heads to St. Bonifacius on Tuesday afternoon to face Crown College at 3 p.m.
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