Minnesota Crookston falls to 26-12 with the loss. Augustana moves to 35-10. The Vikings will move on to take on Minnesota State University in the NSIC Championship Game Friday, May 21 at Karras Park in Sioux Falls, S.D. The Vikings will have to beat Minnesota State twice to win the championship. The Golden Eagles have had their best season in terms of win-percentage in program history. UMN Crookston is just two wins shy of their school-record 28 wins set in 2019. Minnesota Crookston picked up their most wins in program history in the NSIC Tournament.
Friday's game had many delays, as they had three official reviews, a delay due to the lights going out, and a short delay due to the sprinklers coming on in center field. The game went over four hours, running into the early hours of Friday morning.
Minnesota Crookston struggled with unearned runs as they gave up six in the game and had four errors. The Golden Eagles had 11 unearned runs during Wednesday's game against Minnesota State.
Minnesota Crookston was led by
Brock Reller (Sr., OF, Grand Forks, N.D.) went 2-of-3 with one run scored.
Scott Finberg (R-Sr., 3B, Stillwater, Minn.) went 1-of-4 with an RBI and a run scored.
Jake Hjelle (R-Fr., 1B, East Grand Forks, Minn.) was 1-of-3 with a run scored, while
Parker Stroh (R-Fr., C, Grand Forks, N.D.) went 1-of-3 with two RBIs.
Matt Nelson (R-So., RHP, Afton, Minn.) got the start and suffered the loss after giving up three earned runs on seven hits.
Jake Osowski (R-Fr., RHP, East Grand Forks, Minn.) allowed no earned runs on one hit in two innings.
Trace Brayton (R-Fr., LHP, Prentice, Wis.) allowed no runs in 0.1 innings, while
Jayden Grover (R-Sr., RHP, Cooperstown, N.D.) gave up no runs in one inning. He had two strikeouts.
Koby Bishop got the win for Augustana after allowing three runs on four hits. Bishop struck out seven and walked two. Tanner Brown got the save after tossing four innings. He allowed no runs on three hits. Brown struck out eight and walked two.
Augustana opened up the bottom of the first with back-to-back singles from Carter Howell and Max Mosser. Barth reached on an error and Howell came in to score to put the Vikings ahead 1-0. A Will Olson double drove in Jordan Barth and Howell to push the Augustana advantage to 3-0. Nelson got his first out of the game with a strikeout of Christian Kuzemka. In the next at-bat Johnson singled through the left side to drive in Olson to push the lead to 4-0. Nelson got his second strikeout of the inning by retiring Jaxon Rosencranz. With the bases loaded, Nelson got a fly ball to center from Howell to get out of the stanza.
Minnesota Crookston looked to get things going in the top of the second as Reller led it off with a single to right field. Reller moved to second base on a wild pitch. Swenson walked with two outs, to give UMN Crookston two runners with two outs. Bishop struck out Stroh to get Augustana out of danger.
The Vikings led off the bottom of the second with a Mosser single. Mosser was picked off by Nelson at first. In the next at-bat Barth walked. Minnesota Crookston pulled Nelson in favor of Osowski following the walk of Barth. Kuzemka lined out to Zimmerman in center to get UMN Crookston out of any trouble.
Bishop retired Minnesota Crookston in order to preserve the 4-0 advantage.
After walking Sam Baier, Osowski struck out both Riley Johnson and Rosencranz, before Mix singled to push Baier to third. J.T. Mix moved to second on a stolen base. Osowski walked Howell to load up the bases with two outs. Hjelle made a great play on a ball heading into foul territory with a leaping grab to get the final out as the Vikings stranded the bases loaded.
Reller was hit with an 89 mile-per-hour fastball to give the Golden Eagles a base runner with one out in the top of the fourth. Reller moved to second on a wild pitch. Finberg delivered a double down the left field line to cut the deficit to 4-1. After Hjelle was hit by a pitch, Swenson reached on catcher's interference to load the bases. Stroh then came through with a single through the right side to plate Hjelle and Finberg to trim the Augustana lead to 4-3. Bishop got a strikeout of Thoma to get out of the inning.
The Vikings put runners on the corners in the bottom of the fourth as Olson was hit by a pitch and Kuzemka reached on a throwing error.
Jake Dykhoff (Jr., RHP, Wadena, Minn.) came on to try to get Minnesota Crookston out of trouble. Dykhoff struck out Baier, but then Johnson came through with an infield single. Kuzemka and Olson came in to score on an error to push the lead to 6-3. A Rosencranz single plated Johnson to extend the Vikings advantage to 7-3. Dykhoff got Mix to line out to get out of any further danger.
Augustana put two runners on in the bottom of the fifth as Mosser was walked and Barth was hit by a pitch. With one out, Schneider made a sliding grab in foul territory as the pitcher made the second out. A groundout got the Golden Eagles out of the inning.
The Vikings retired Minnesota Crookston in order in the top of the seventh as they held their 7-3 lead.
Augustana added a run in the bottom of the sixth with a Johnson sacrifice fly to center field to drive in Baier, who had reached on a throwing error. The Golden Eagles got a big out as Stroh made a sliding catch in foul territory for the second out. Schneider then struck out Mix to get UMN Crookston out of the stanza.
Zimmerman tried to get things going in the bottom of the sixth as he beat out an infield single. Zimmerman moved to second on a stolen base, his 21
st of the season. Brown got a strikeout looking from Reller as Augustana got out of the stanza.
Howell led off the bottom of the seventh with a triple for the Vikings. Mosser singled to center to plate Howell to extend the Augustana advantage to 9-3. A Kuzemka single drove in Mosser. Barth also appeared to score but he missed third base and the Golden Eagles caught it and threw him out. The game had a delay in the bottom of the seventh due to the lights going out at Karras Park Home of Ronken Field.
After the lights came back on, Brayton came on to pitch. Augustana added a run to make it 11-3 when Johnson reached on a throwing error, allowing Kuzemka to score. With the bases loaded, Brayton got the final out, but not without the Vikings scoring three in the bottom of the seventh.
With one out in the top of the eighth, Hjelle tried to get things going for the Golden Eagles with a single through the left side. Swenson followed it up with a single through the right side to give UMN Crookston two on and one out. A wild pitch moved Swenson and Hjelle over 90 feet. Brown got Chu to strikeout to put two outs on the scoreboard. Brown got Thoma to strike out to keep Augustana in an 11-3 lead.
Grover came on and walked two, but was able to strand the runners to keep the game at 11-3 going into the top of the ninth.
Minnesota Crookston tried to keep things going in the top of the ninth. With one out, Zimmerman reached on a walk. Zimmerman moved to second on a defensive indifference. The game had a final delay as the sprinklers popped on in center field at 11:58 p.m. Reller was walked with two outs, giving the Golden Eagles two on with two outs. Brown got Finberg on a strikeout looking to preserve the 11-3 win for the Vikings.
Minnesota Crookston will find out on Sunday at 9 p.m. C.T. whether the season will continue. The Golden Eagles were ranked No. 8 in the most recent NCAA Central Region poll. They defeated the No. 6 seed St. Cloud State earlier on Thursday. The Golden Eagles will have an outside shot, but will learn definitively on Sunday. The region will likely be in Warrensburg, Mo. Next week as the University of Central Missouri is the top seed currently in the region.
