ST. CLOUD, Minn. --- The first-seeded Minnesota State Maverick baseball squad, who are rated #19 in the nation, faced the fifth-seeded Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Championship tournament game and were victorious by a score of 6-5. The NSIC Tournament title marks the second straight season MSU has earned the crown; the Mavericks also earned the regular season title earlier this season.
Junior left-handed pitcher Danny Miller took the mound for the start for the second time this season, entering the contest 1-0 with a 1.59 ERA.
Southwest Minnesota State jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Mustangs lead-off batter, senior Derick Swenson sent the first pitch of the game over the left field fence.
In the bottom of the first, junior shortstop Zach Rowles hit a lead-off single through the right side, stole second, advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from senior third baseman Kosuke Hattori and reached home on a single from junior left fielder Pat Dockendorf, knotting things up at 1.
The Mavericks increased their lead to 3-1 in the second, junior outfielder Aaron Berner reached on a error by the second baseman, followed up by a two-run homer to right field from sophomore second baseman Matt Kuchenbecker, his sixth of the season and third of the tournament.
With one out in the third, SMSU's Swenson was hit by a pitch, while senior first baseman Andrew Kinney followed that up with a game tying, two-run home run to left field, tying the game, 3-3.
MSU jumped out to a 6-3 lead after scoring one in the third and two in the fourth. In the bottom of the third inning, Dockendorf reached on his second hit of the contest, advanced to third when Miller reached on an error, and then stole home on a double steal. MSU also tallied a couple runs in the fourth courtesy of RBI singles off the bats of Hattori and sophomore outfielder Ben Kincaid.
Junior Tyler Jendro pulled the Mustangs within two runs in the sixth inning after he singled to left field, stole second and was batted in on a single from sophomore Josh Wendland.
The Mustangs pulled within one run in the top of the eighth after junior Cody Curry walked on, advanced to third on a single from junior Tyler Faden, and then scored on a single from Jendro.
In his second of the season, Miller improved his record to 2-0 on the year with his 7.1 innings of work. The lefty gave up four runs (all earned) off of six hits, walking three and striking out nine.
MSU finished with 10 hits, had no errors and left five on base, while the Mustangs tallied eight hits, two errors and left six runners on base.
In today's contest the Mavericks set a new single-season hits record with 582 hits, the previous mark was 581 set in 1980. The team also tied the single-season mark for RBI with 368, which was previously reached in 2006. MSU also set a new single-season mark for total bases with 875, 859 was the previous mark set in 1980.
Kuchenbecker, Rowles, Berner, Dockendorf and Mitchell were all named to the All-Tournament Team. Rowles took home the Most Valuable Player, finishing the tournament with a .500 batting average, five RBI, right runs scored, four doubles and a home run.
Dockendorf also extended his hitting streak to 18, tying the single-season best Hattori set earlier in the season.
The Mavericks (40-13) will advance to the 2010 NCAA Central Region tournament next week with their NSIC tournament title. The NCAA will release the central region seedings at 9:00 p.m. tonight.
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To view season stats, click HERE.
