St. Cloud, Minn. --- The first-seeded Minnesota State Maverick baseball squad eliminated the #2-seeded Winona State Warriors Saturday afternoon by a score of 20-4.
Junior shortstop Zach Rowles opened the contest with a double to right-field, setting a new single-season record for doubles, his twenty-first of the season. He then advanced to third-base on a sacrifice bunt off the bat of senior third baseman Kosuke Hattori. Sophomore outfielder Ben Kincaid then reached first on an error, allowing Rowles to reach home, putting MSU up 1-0.
Sophomore second baseman Matt Kuchenbecker started the Mavericks 11-run second inning by hitting his fourth home run of the season, a solo homer to right-field, while Rowles hit his second double of the game, down the right-field, sending sophomore first baseman Matt Odegaard home.
The Mavericks continued to tally runs, sophomore outfielder Ben Kincaid earned a RBI single, followed up by a three-run homer to right from Junior designated hitter Pat Dockendorf, his eighth which ties junior outfielder Aaron Berner season-high.
To close out the second, Kuchenbecker hit a two-run double, Helget grounded out to the shortstop, allowing Kuchenbecker to score and Rowles tallied hits third hit of the game, a two-run homer to left-field, his fifth of the year, putting the Mavericks up, 12-0.
Winona State tallied its first run of the game in the bottom of the third inning courtesy of a solo home run from freshman Seth McMullen.
Minnesota State increased their lead to 16-1 in the fourth inning after back-to-back solo homers from Berner, his ninth of the year, and Kuchenbecker, his second of the game and fifth of the season. Odegaard then reached on a single and was plated on a two-run blast from junior catcher Steven Helget, his third of the year to left center.
The Warriors earned their second run of the contest in the fourth inning on a RBI double down the left-field line.
MSU tallied one in the sixth when Hattori reached on a error, allowing Rowles to advance home and two more in the seventh with Berner scoring on a wild pitch and Rowles hitting an RBI single, sending Kuchebecker in to score, putting the Mavericks up, 19-2.
In the seventh, WSU tallied its third run of the contest, another solo shot to right center from freshman Cody Strang.
The Mavericks added one more in the top of the ninth, the teams seventh home run of the game, hit by Odegaard. The solo shot marks his first of the season.
Senior right-handed pitcher Pat Lenton improved his record to 10-3 after pitching his seventh complete game of the season. In his nine innings of action, Lenton gave up four runs off of ten hits, walked one and struck out four. Lenton's nine innings pitched puts him at 87.0 on the year, which sets a new single-season mark, previously held by Blake Evenson who pitched 86.2 in 1980.
The Mavericks finished with 27 hits, no errors and left 11 runners on base, while the Winona State tallied 10 hits, 3 errors and left six on base.
Dockendorf extended his hitting streak to 16 games, two short of senior Kosuke Hattori's season-high 18 games hitting streak that ended last month. Dockendorf finished four-for-five with three RBI and home run.
Rowles finished the contest going five-for-seven with four RBI, four runs scored, three doubles and a homer. Rowles now owns 23 doubles on the season, a new single-season record previously held by Scott Geiger who hit 19 in 2000. He also set a new single-season record for hits in a season with 82, previously held by Mike Carroll who had 81 in 1980.
The Mavericks (38-13, 25-7 NSIC), who are 2-1 in the tournament, will face the fourth-seeded Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs (36-18, 22-10 NSIC), who are 2-0 in the tournament, at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon in St. Cloud, Minn.
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To view season stats, click HERE.
