AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team returned to action on Wednesday in Florida following the team's lone day off of the trip. The Cougars faced off with SUNY Oneonta in a pair of seven-inning contests and came away with the win in the opener, 11-3, before the Red Dragons returned the favor in game two, winning, 13-7. The split of the two games puts UMN Morris at 4-6 overall on the year.

Minnesota Morris will face The College of New Jersey in a single game tomorrow at 11:45 a.m. (12:45 p.m. EDT) in Auburndale, Fla.

Game 1: Minnesota Morris 11, SUNY Oneonta 3
Josh Osten (1-2) pitched a complete game and Minnesota Morris came back from a 3-1 deficit through four innings to take the opener of the twinbill.

The Cougars got on the board in the third inning when Landen Meyerdirk reached via an error and later scored on a Ben Meuser sacrifice fly. With two down and no one on in the bottom of the third, SUNY Oneonta connected on three straight base hits before a pair of errors from Minnesota Morris allowed all three runners to come home. 

The Red Dragons were made to pay for some errors of their own in the top of the fifth. James Nelson was hit by a pitch to start the inning and Meyerdirk reached on an error yet again. With one away, a Meuser RBI single tied the score up at 3-3. With Meuser and Ethan Schmitz in scoring position, a Ryan McGie single scored both. He would later come home on a second Oneonta error of the inning to make it 6-3.

With two down and the bases loaded in the top of the sixth, Trevor Haberman delivered a big RBI single to push the lead to 8-3. After a pitching change, McGie welcomed the new Oneonta reliever to the contest with a three-run shot to build the margin to 11-3.

Osten finished things off by retiring the final two batters in the fifth and then setting the Red Dragons down in order in both the sixth and seventh to close it out.

Game 2: SUNY Oneonta 13, Minnesota Morris 7
Oneonta led off the second game by having its first three hitters reach and two of those runs would eventually score as the Red Dragons started with a 2-0 lead before the Cougars had had a turn at the plate.

In the third, the Oneonta lead extended to 6-0 as the Red Dragons took advantage of two Cougar errors and also pounded out a pair of doubles. 

Minnesota Morris was able to cut its deficit in half in the third and fourth innings. Meuser had another sac fly in the third. In the fourth, following an Ashton Pauly lead-off walk, Ty Beasley doubled him home and would later score himself on a Tyler Moriarty RBI groundout to make it 6-3.

The comeback effort stalled out in the fifth inning as Minnesota Morris pitching lost control of the strike zone and issued seven walks to help Oneonta score seven runs and grow the margin to 13-3.

The Cougars made it closer in the bottom of the sixth on RBIs from Moriarty, Meyerdirk, and Meuser to slice it to 13-7.

Schmitz (0-1) started the game and took the loss on the hill. Beasley finished the day 3-for-3 at the plate with a walk and two runs scored.