NEW ULM, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris jumped ahead early and received a strong pitching performance from Josh Osten to take the first game in a three-game series from Martin Luther College, 7-1, on Friday afternoon. The Cougars improve to 15-15 (10-5 UMAC) with the win.

The Cougars wasted no time grabbing a lead as Alex Baumann led off the top of the first with a double. The senior shortstop then swiped third base to break the program's all-time stolen base record with the 46th of his career. Ethan Schmitz later drove Baumann in with a RBI groundout for a 1-0 advantage.

In the second inning, a Martin Luther error kept things alive for the Cougar offense and Evan Benson and Baumann delivered back-to-back RBI doubles to make it 3-0. The early onslaught continued in the top of the third with a bases-loaded walk to Alex Goedhard that forced in Schmitz for a 4-0 lead.

The lone run of the day for Martin Luther came on a fielder's choice in the bottom of the third to bring the Knights within three, 4-1. Both teams settled in from there with scoreless fourth and fifth innings before the Cougars pushed the lead back to four runs with a RBI single from Ashton Pauly in the sixth inning.

The final nails in the coffin came in the seventh as a Martin Luther error allowed Ty Beasley to score from third. Benson later hit his second double of the afternoon to score Cooper Cicirello and give Minnesota Morris a 7-1 cushion. 

Osten continued to cruise through the MLC lineup and worked a 1-2-3 seventh inning as well as an eighth inning that only got interesting because of a Cougar error. Coming in to pitch the ninth, Brady Kenning hit a pair of Knight batters but got a 6-3 double play to finish things off.

Osten ended the game going 8.0 innings and giving up just one run on seven hits while striking out three to move to 2-3 on the year. Baumann and Benson each went 3-for-5 in the contest.

Minnesota Morris will conclude its series with Martin Luther tomorrow with a doubleheader in New Ulm starting at 2 p.m.