Omaha, Neb.— Every game matters in conference play for the Minnesota Crookston baseball team. After winning two games over Wayne State College yesterday morning into the afternoon, the Golden Eagles were looking to start out conference play 3-0 for the first time since 2016, the first year Minnesota Crookston made the NSIC conference tournament in the division II era.
The Golden Eagles would use big innings in the second, fourth and seventh innings to defeat the Wildcats of Wayne State, to earn a three game sweep to start conference play at 3-0.
With the win, Minnesota Crookston improves to 10-7 on the year and 3-0 in the NSIC, while the Wildcats fall to 9-7 overall and 0-3 in the NSIC.
Head coach
Steve Gust usually brings 13 pitchers on road trips and in Monday's game, he's probably thankful that he does.
The Golden Eagles used five pitchers in the win, including starter
Nate Albrecht (Sr., LHP, Wahpeton, N.D.) who went 3.2 innings while giving up five runs on seven hits. Connor Richardson (Fr., RHP, Grand Forks, N.D.) came in for Albrecht and earned his first win of his Golden Eagle career.
Aaron Hollcraft (Sr., LHP, Crookston, Minn.),
Henry Pesch (Jr., RHP, Minneota, Minn./Northland CTC) and
Dalton Grose (R-So., LHP, Waterville, Minn.) each pitched an inning in relief as well. Grose earned the save for the second consecutive game, his fourth on the season.
Minnesota Crookston would jump Wayne State starter Aaron Ras early and often. The Golden Eagles got on the board first by a
Ben Thoma (So., C/SS, Clearbrook, Minn.) sacrifice fly that scored
Bryce Jorgenson (Jr., UT, Thunder Bay, Ontario), to make it 1-0. Jorgenson scored one run on the day, bringing his team leading total to 19.
Minnesota Crookston put up a crooked number in the top of the second. Jorgenson singled up the middle, driving in
Scott Finberg (Jr., 3B, Stillwater, Minn.) for a 2-0 lead. The Golden Eagles would use some Wildcats errors to add two more runs to take a 4-0 lead.
The Wildcats would try to come back from the deep hole that they dug themselves and put up a crooked number, by scoring three runs in the bottom of the third to cut the Golden Eagle lead to just 4-3.
Mason Ruhlman (Jr., 2B, Algonac, Mich.) got things started in the top half of the fourth with a lead-off triple. Ruhlman would eventually score on a
Landyn Swenson (Jr., OF, Devils Lake, N.D.) double. The Golden Eagles would take a 6-5 lead heading into the seventh.
In the seventh, the Golden Eagles added some insurance with two runs with help from the middle of the order.
Reed Hjelle (Sr., 1B, East Grand Forks, Minn.) led off the inning with a HBP and was eventually driven in on a Reller sacrifice fly. Thoma would come around and score on a Finberg sacrifice fly.
Those two insurance runs turned out to be huge for the Golden Eagles as the Wildcats would score the next two runs, including a solo homerun in the bottom of the ninth to bring the Wildcats within one run, but Grose was able to shut the door for the sweep of the Wildcats.
Offensively, the Golden Eagles had six hits on the day, including two from Swenson, who went 2-5 and scored two runs. Jorgenson,
Travis Conoryea (R-So., OF/C, Inver Grove Heights, Minn.), Jorgenson, Finberg and Ruhlman each had one hit for the Golden Eagles six hits. The Golden Eagles left seven runners on base in the game.
Weather permitting, the Golden Eagles will travel to St. Paul, Minnesota next Saturday and Sunday for three games with the Golden Bears of Concordia-St. Paul. Game times are set for 1 and 3 p.m., next Saturday and 12 p.m., next Sunday afternoon in the capital city of Minnesota.
