MORRIS, Minn. - Cougar baseball faced Northland College twice on Saturday and came away with two wins in fourteen total innings of play. With the wind blowing out, the Cougars kept the scoring relatively low for Northland in the first game, winning 25-9. In the second game, the Cougars roared back from an 11-2 deficit to claim a 28-17 win as they moved to 9-11 (4-2 UMAC) on the season.

Game 1: Minnesota Morris 25, Northland 9 (7 innings)
Minnesota Morris started the game out strong as work from Cole Mammenga on the mound and from the Cougar defense in the field kept the top of the first inning scoreless for the Lumberjacks. The Cougar bats were swinging in the bottom of the first, as the Cougars scored twelve runs, both Landen Meyerdirk and Ben Meuser hit grand slams, and the Lumberjacks were forced to go to the bullpen immediately. 

Conditions were in favor of the offensive team throughout the day and Northland was bound to score. The LumberJacks did just that with four runs in both the second and fourth innings to pull within 12-8 before Minnesota Morris ran away with it. The first four runs in the bottom of the fourth came from doubles off of hits from Logan Straumann and Meyerdirk, followed by a run due to a wild pitch that made it 17-8.

Following one last run from Northland, the Cougars sealed the deal in the bottom of the fifth, scoring their last eight runs of the day, which included a solo home run from Ty Beasley and another three-run homer from Meuser. 

Trevor Mong (1-1) pitched effectively in relief and struck out six over 3.2 innings.

Game 2: Minnesota Morris 28, Northland 17 (7 innings)
A 2-1 lead for Minnesota Morris after the first inning was just a taste of what was to come as the second game unfolded.

Six walks in the top of the second inning alone helped Northland to plate 10 runs and take an 11-2 lead, however the Cougars would manage to reclaim a 12-11 lead by the time the second inning was done as the team bashed eight hits in the inning, including a three-run shot from Ryan McGie.

A quick three-batter top of the third led into a two-run bottom of the third for the Cougars with a Meyerdirk homerun. Two more runs in the fourth came from the Cougars, putting them up 16-11 going into the fifth. The Lumberjacks were able to bring one runner home with a sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth, but Minnesota Morris responded with a sac fly of their own to put the score at 17-12. Northland closed the gap with three runs in the top of the sixth before a double play from the Cougars shut them down. 

UMN Morris put another six runs on the board in the bottom of the sixth, forcing the Lumberjacks to make some lineup changes late in the game. Northland finished up its last inning at the plate with two runs, unable to fully close the gap. With the score at 24-17, a grand slam from Keegan Jonas brought in four runs to secure the Cougar win in seven innings. 

After the rocky start for Cougar pitching, Jacob Tobritzhofer (1-0) came on in relief and settled things down for 3.2 innings, striking out five. Meuser upped his RBI total for the year to 40, setting a new single-season record for Cougar baseball with the season only halfway complete.

With six UMAC match-ups under their belts, the Cougars will face off against Saint John's University on April 10 at 2:30 p.m. in Collegeville, Minn. The Cougars will then take on Martin Luther College at Chizek Field for a three-game Friday/Saturday series with the first game beginning at 3PM on Friday.