DAVENPORT, Fla. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team finished off its trip to Florida for the RussMatt Invitational with an 11-1 loss to Illinois Wesleyan University in seven innings on Saturday morning. The Cougars return home with an overall record of 5-9 on the year.

Cole Mammenga (0-1) got the start for Minnesota Morris and sat Illinois Wesleyan down in order in the first inning. The Titans managed one base runner in the second but didn't score, and the Cougars kept IWU off the board in the bottom of the third when Owen Dylong and Fred Huebner relayed a throw home to Alex Goedhard for the tag to end the inning.

The best scoring chance for UMN Morris in those first three innings was when Huebner singled in the third and stole second before being left in scoring position. Illinois Wesleyan broke through with a three-run fourth inning started off by a two-run homer from JP Ferraro. 

Illinois Wesleyan added one more run in the fifth inning to make it 4-0, but the backbreaker was in the sixth when the Titans put seven runs on the board with only one of them charged as earned to reliever Jacob Schaaf. That ballooned the IWU lead to 11-0 and put Minnesota Morris in a position to have to score two runs in the seventh to continue the game further.

Ethan Schmitz led off the seventh with a double down the line in left and scored with two down on a RBI single from Ty Beasley, but the Cougars couldn't find the second run they needed and the game came to an early conclusion.

Minnesota Morris is slated to host Crown College in the opening UMAC series of the season on March 22-23 at Chizek Field. The first game of the three-game set is scheduled for Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.