BEMIDJI, Minn. – The University of Minnesota Crookston picked up the doubleheader sweep of Bemidi State University Wed., April 13 at the BSU Baseball Stadium in Bemidji, Minn, 4-1 and 12-5. 

The wins for the Golden Eagles help UMC surpass their wins mark in a season, which is now at 15. They surpass last season's win total of 14. The Golden Eagles now have 29 wins in two seasons after just two wins in the previous two seasons prior to Head Coach Steve Gust's arrival. The turnaround has been one of the biggest in all of NCAA baseball.

The Golden Eagles are now at 15-10 (8-3 NSIC) on the season. They are now alone in fourth place in the NSIC standings. Bemidji State falls to 6-26 (3-13 NSIC) on the season.

Wednesday's first game started out as a pitcher's duel between UMC's Jarad Nelson (Sr., RHP, Karlstad, Minn.) and Bemidji State's Nick Heisick. Both teams would control the opponent bats through the first five innings as the Golden Eagles and Beavers would be knotted up 0-0 heading to the fifth inning.

Minnesota Crookston would get to Heisick in the top of the fifth. Jason Angelo (So., 3B, Manteca, Calif.) would come through with the first home run of his career, blasted to left field to make it 1-0.

Reed Hjelle (Fr., OF/1B, East Grand Forks, Minn.) would then hit a double to left to drive in Ryan Haggstrom (Sr., 1B/RHP, Apple Valley, Minn.). Hjelle would be followed up by Colton Haight's (Sr., C/OF, Rogers, Minn.) first home run of the season to drive in himself and Hjelle and make it 4-0.

Haight's home run would chase Heisick from the game as they put in relief pitcher Patrick Gonzales.

Bemidji State would get a run back in the fifth as Joey Hanowski singled through the right side to drive in Duane Miller.

The Golden Eagle bullpen would shut down the Beaver bats the rest of the way as Luke Thoma (Sr., RHP, Little Falls, Minn.), Cody Pamperin (Jr., RHP, Shakopee, Minn.) and Zach Seipel (Fr., RHP, Eagan, Minn.) would allow no hits and no runs in 2.2 innings pitched.

Seipel would earn the save for the Golden Eagles, his sixth of the season, after going one inning and shutting down the side.

The Golden Eagles were led in game one by Haight, who came through with one of his best games of the season, going 3-of-3 with two RBI's and one run scored. Haggstrom was 3-of-4 with one run scored, while Angelo was 2-of-3 with one RBI and one run scored.

The win went to Nelson, his third of the season, as he went 4.1 innings and gave up one earned up on six hits with one strikeout.

The loss went to Heisick, who falls to 3-5 on the year. He went 4.2 innings with four earned runs on eight hits with four strikeouts.

The Golden Eagles would jump out to a 1-0 lead in the first when Haggstrom singled up the middle to drive in Ethan Mushitz (So., SS, East Grand Forks, Minn.).

Bemidji State would answer when Scott Litchy hit a sacrifice fly to plate Gunner Olszewski to knot it up 1-1.

The Golden Eagles would get one more in the second as Mushitz hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Thomas Kinsella (Sr., 2B, North Branch, Minn.), who led off the inning with an infield single.

The Golden Eagles would come through with a big third inning as they would get four runs. Zach Frazier (R-So., C, Grand Rapids, Minn.) would come up with the clutch hit of the inning with a bases-clearing double to drive in Kinsella, Haight and Hjelle. UMC would chase starter Zach Petray in favor of reliever Luke Benge. UMC would get one more with Benge on the mound as a wild pitch scored Frazier to make it 6-1.

Bemidji State would get one run back in the bottom of the third as Litchy reached on an error by Kinsella, allowing Hanowski to score to cut the lead to 6-2.

Frazier would come through with another clutch at-bat in the fifth, driving a ball to deep right field to drive in Haight to extend the Golden Eagle advantage to 7-2.


Minnesota Crookston would add a run in the sixth as Hjelle doubled to drive in Haggstrom to put the Golden Eagles up 8-2.

The Beavers would get to Nolan Wahlberg (Sr., RHP, Blaine, Minn.) in the seventh inning. Hanowski would lead off the inning with a solo home run. Mason Cisneros would get the second run of the inning to cross as he singled to right field to drive in Tyler Nelson.

The Golden Eagles would add security runs in the top of the ninth. Haight would reach on the fielder's choice on a sacrifice bunt. Hjelle and pinch-runner Timothy Scott, Jr. (Sr., OF, Macon, Ga.) would score on an error by the pitcher. Riley Thompson (So., OF, Owatonna, Minn.) would extend the lead with his first career home run to drive in himself and Haight and make it 12-4.

Pamperin would come on for the second time on the day. BSU would be able to get a run off Pamperin in the ninth as Nick Hovila singled to drive in Nelson. The Beavers would get the bases loaded but Pamperin would get out of it as UMC would hang on for the win.

UMC was led in game two by Hjelle, who was 4-of-5 with one RBI and two runs scored. Frazier would go 3-of-5 with four RBI's and one runs scored with three doubles. Kenny Perez (Sr., DH/1B, Orlando, Fla.) would go 3-of-5.

Wahlberg would get his sixth win of the season, going seven innings, giving up four earned runs and striking out two for the Golden Eagles.
Trevor Buttermore (Sr., RHP, North St. Paul, Minn.) also threw in relief in the eighth, giving up no runs on one hit in one inning.

The loss went to Petray, who went 2.2 innings and gave up five earned runs on eight hits.

The Golden Eagles will return to action Sat., April 16 at 1 and 3:30 p.m. against Upper Iowa University at UMC Baseball Field.