Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 CLEARWATER, Fla. - The University of Minnesota Crookston baseball team fell 14-4 to Slippery Rock University and 12-5 to Lock Haven University in a doubleheader Sunday at Jack Russell Memorial Stadium in Clearwater, Fla. The Golden Eagles fall to 1-3 in their games in Florida with the pair of losses. Minnesota Crookston is now 1-10 on the season. Slippery Rock improved to 10-4 with the win while Lock Haven is 8-3 on the season.

In game one Sunday, Jon Mittag (Sr., P, Glenville, Minn./Sports and Rec Management) got the start for the Golden Eagles against Slippery Rock and would go 4.1 innings and would give up nine earned runs on eight hits.   

The Rock would look to Anthony Naso on the mound. The Slippery Rock pitcher would go seven innings and give up three earned runs on eight hits and get the win for Slippery Rock.

The Rock would get on the scoreboard first as they got to Mittag early on in the first inning. A Jordan Faretta double to left field drove in Will Kengor for the first run of the game. Adam Urbania then hit a clutch triple for Slippery Rock to drive home Faretta to extend the lead to 2-0. A Mittag wild pitch would allow Urbania to score to make it 3-0. After putting two more men on, Mittag would recover and pitch well to get UMC out of the inning.

Mittag would put together a strong inning in the second to keep The Rock at bay. The Golden Eagles would cut into the lead in the top of the third as Patrick Higgins (Fr., OF, Eagan, Minn./Criminal Justice) singled to plate Tony Madsen (Sr., SS/2B, Mounds View, Minn./Natural Resources Management), who had doubled. A Ryan Haggstrom (So., C/1B/P, Apple Valley, Minn./Accounting) would single to score Higgins to cut the Slippery Rock advantage to 3-2.

After a strong pitching outing from Mittag and Naso in the bottom of the third and top of the fourth, respectively,  Slippery Rock would add two more runs to their lead in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs, Kengor would double to left field to score Ryan Hill. A Mittag wild pitch then allowed Kengor to score to make it 5-2.

The Rock would chase Mittag in the fifth. A Ty Zimmerman single up the middle would score Logan Brown and Urbania to make it 7-2. Mittag would then be replaced by Thane Larson (Sr., P, Grantsburg, Wis./Natural Resources) on the mound. A single from Hill would score Zimmerman to make it 8-2 and then a Jake Weibley sacrifice fly out would allow Carson Kessler to score to extend it to 9-2.


Two more runs would score in the bottom of the sixth with Larson on the mound to make it 11-2.

The Golden Eagles would cut into Slippery Rock's lead in the seventh as Josh Brehmer (Sr., SS/2B, Falcon Heights, Minn./Communications) hit a sacrifice fly to score Madsen to make it 11-3.

Three more runs would cross in the seventh for The Rock to extend the advantage to 14-3.

The Golden Eagles would finish up the game with one more run in the ninth as Higgins scored on a wild pitch.

Minnesota Crookston was led against Slippery Rock by Higgins, who went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and one RBI. In addition, Madsen went 2-for-3 with two runs scored.

The Rock was led by Kengor, who was for 4-for-5 with three runs scored and one RBI. Urbania was 3-for-4 with three runs scored and one RBI.

In game two, Matt Korte (Sr., P/3B, St. Cloud, Minn./Accounting) got the start for Minnesota Crookston. Korte would go five innings, giving up 10 runs, nine of them earned on 12 hits in the loss.

For Lock Haven, Jacob Belinda got the start. He would go seven innings, giving up three runs, two of them earned, on five hits. Belinda would earn the win.

The Golden Eagles would put the first run of the game on the board as Brandon Kresl (Fr., 1B, Crookston, Minn./Business) hit a single to right field to score Madsen, who had walked.

Lock Haven would knot up the game at 1-1 as Gordon Barr scored on a groundout.

Lock Haven would finally get to Korte in the fourth when with one out Tyler Yesensky doubled to center field to score Anthony Kyne to make it 2-1. A Jamie Eshleman groundout would drive in Koch and then Yesensky would then score on a wild pitch to make it 4-1.

The Bald Eagles would add five runs off of Korte to extend their advantage to 9-1 in the top of the fifth.

Minnesota Crookston would cut the lead to 9-2 as Travis Magdzas (Jr., OF, Duluth, Minn./Criminal Justice) singled to left to score Haggstrom, who had walked.

One more run would cross for Lock Haven in the sixth to extend their lead to 10-2.

A Robbie Smothers (Jr., 3B, Waconia, Minn.) would hit a single to third base to score Haight, who had reached on an error by the first baseman.

Lock Haven would add two more runs to make it 12-3 in the next in the top of the seventh.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Golden Eagles would add two more runs as Jesse Jennings (Jr., OF, Robbinsdale, Minn./Criminal Justice) hit the first home run of his career and the first home run of the season for the Golden Eagles. Jennings would drive home Kresl, who singled, to make it 12-5.

The Golden Eagles had seven hits on the day and were led by Kresl, who was 2-for-3 with one run scored and one RBI. Jennings also had a strong day, going 2-for-4 with two RBI's and one run scored on the day.

Lock Haven was led by Barr, who was 3-for-4 with one run scored. Koch was 3-for-5 with two runs scored while Yesensky was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and four RBI's.

The Golden Eagles will have a day off tomorrow before playing Johnson University Florida at 6 p.m. Tues., March 18 at Jack Russell Memorial Stadium in Clearwater, Fla., which will round out their Florida trip.

For more information, visit the Golden Eagle Athletics website at www.goldeneaglesports.com.

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The University of Minnesota Crookston is an NCAA Division II Institution and a member of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). The Golden Eagle Equestrian team is a member of the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA).