DAVENPORT, Fla. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team totaled 16 hits and 12 walks on Monday afternoon to trample Utica University, 17-7, in just seven innings. The Cougars improve to 3-5 on the season with the victory.

Leading off in the top half of the first, Minnesota Morris scored four runs with two outs. David Steffen walked to load the bases, and free passes to Ryan McGie and Ashton Pauly followed, forcing in a pair of runs. After that, Logan Straumann took one for the team and was hit by a pitch to drive in a run for a 3-0 edge. Before the inning was through, James Nelson walked and another run came home.

Despite the fast start, the Cougars did have to dig out of a hole. Utica came back and scored six runs in the top of the first on four hits, three walks, and a passed ball. Though Brady Kenning (2-1) came on in relief and closed out the first, Minnesota Morris was not able to push any runs across in the second inning. Finding a rhythm on the mound, Kenning sat the Pioneers down in order in the bottom half of the frame and got the Cougars back on offense to start the top of the third.

Like in the first, walks played a major role for the Cougars in the third inning. Pauly led off with a double, but a pair of walks helped load the bases and a third walk to Owen Dylong forced a run in to cut it to a 6-5 game. The next hitter up, Ben Meuser, launched a grand slam over the fence and put Minnesota Morris up for good, 9-6.

Utica pulled one run back in the bottom of the third to make it 9-7, but that was to be the final run for the Pioneers on the day. Straumann had a RBI single in the fourth inning to rebuild a three-run lead and McGie collected the second Cougar home run of the afternoon with a two-run shot in the fifth to make it 12-7.

With the bases juiced in the sixth, Meuser added another RBI with a sacrifice fly to increase it to a 13-7 ballgame. In the seventh, a pair of walks helped load the bases with two away. Dylong then doubled down the line in left to plate two runs and a Meuser single tacked on two more for a 17-7 advantage.

Nolan Satre came on in relief of Kenning in the bottom of the seventh and had a scoreless inning of relief to preserve the 10-run lead and wrap the game up early.

Kenning finished with six strikeouts in 5.1 innings, giving up just three hits and one run. Pauly was 4-for-4 at the plate and added a walk, while Nelson was 1-for-1 with four walks. Meuser went 3-for-5 on the day and drove in seven runs. Dylong and Steffen also had two hits apiece.

Minnesota Morris will enjoy a day off tomorrow to recuperate before returning to action on Wednesday with a doubleheader against SUNY Oneonta in Auburndale, Fla. beginning at 8:15 a.m. (9:15 a.m. EDT).