MORRIS, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Morris baseball team was outslugged by Crown College on Monday afternoon, falling twice in a doubleheader against the Polars by scores of 17-3 and 18-8. The losses send the Cougars to 11-15 (6-5 UMAC) on the year.

The Polars and Cougars have yet to determine a date to play the third and final game of the series, though that will be announced soon. Next up for Minnesota Morris is a three-game series at the University of Wisconsin-Superior on April 20-21. All three games of the series will be played in Duluth, Minn. at Wade Stadium. The opener of the series is Saturday night at 7 p.m.

Game 1: Crown 17, Minnesota Morris 3 (7 innings)
Seven home runs in the first three innings from Crown made all the difference as the Polars built a 17-0 lead in the first game of the day and coasted from there. 

The first home run of the day came on the opening batter of the game as Mason Brock went yard for a solo shot. Three doubles later in the inning brought two more runs home as Crown went up, 3-0. In the second inning, the first Polar hitter of the inning was hit by a pitch and Brock went deep for a second time to increase the lead to 5-0.

The top of the third is when it really fell apart for Minnesota Morris. Crown had nine hits in the inning including five home runs – two of which came off the bat of Howie Hatton – as the lead swelled to 17-0. The Cougars got three runs back in the bottom half with walks to Ashton Pauly and James Nelson, followed by a three-run blast from Ben Meuser. 

That was all the offense that UMN Morris would muster from there on in. The Polars put the Cougars down in order in the fourth and fifth before stranding three Minnesota Morris base runners in the sixth and seventh to wrap the game up early.

Game 2: Crown 18, Minnesota Morris 8 (8 innings)
Crown pitcher Jacob Van Dam pitched four consecutive 1-2-3 innings to start the second game of the day and by the time the Cougars came to bat in the bottom of the fifth, they were staring at an 11-0 deficit.

A five-run fifth inning for Minnesota Morris gave the team some juice. Ethan Schmitz started things off with a one-out single and that was followed by a Ty Beasley double. With two down, Landen Meyerdirk kept the inning alive with a walk and Tyler Moriarty then singled in Schmitz for the first Cougar run of the game. Next up, Ashton Pauly connected on a grand slam to make it an 11-5 contest and get the Cougars back in the game. 

The Cougars continued to claw back into the game at the bottom of the sixth, knocking in three runs to trim it to a 12-8 contest. The first two runs of the inning came from Beasley and Schmitz after a Meyerdirk single. Meyerdirk was then driven in after Moriarty doubled. 

Unfortunately the Cougars were unable to complete the comeback. A grand slam from Brock in the top of the seventh for Crown ballooned the lead back to 16-8 and two more runs crossed home in the eighth to put the Polars up by 10 runs. Though Minnesota Morris loaded the bases in the bottom of the eighth, the Cougars were unable to score and the game wrapped up prior to the ninth inning.