MANKATO, Minn. -- The Minnesota State baseball team swept a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference doubleheader with a pair of victories (18-0 and 13-1) over Minnesota Duluth to open a three-game series, Saturday at Bowyer Field
The Mavericks now stand 15-4 overall this season with an 8-2 mark in the NSIC after picking up the pair of wins. The Bulldogs fell to 9-11 overall and a 3-4 league mark with the losses.
GAME ONE (7 INNINGS) | Minnesota State 18, Minnesota Duluth 0
The Mavericks hit the ground running with dominant hitting in game one. MSU outhit UMD 11-1 in the first game and scored runs in six of the seven innings. Leading the charge was junior infielder Mikey Gottschalk, who went two-for-four in the first game with three runs scored and five batted in on a pair of opposite-field home runs.
The first and eventual game-winning run was drove in by Hunter Ranweiler, who singled to left-center to drive in Cam Kline and make it a 1-0 game in the first inning. MSU didn't look back from that moment on and scored another run in the second, two in the third, three in the fourth and another pair in the fifth before capping it with a nine-run inning in the top of the seventh.
Senior right-handed pitcher Brendan Knoll put on a clinic pitching in game one. In six innings of work, the Kasson, Minn., native improved his record to 4-1 on the year when he shutout the Bulldogs and held them to one hit while surrendering just one walk and striking out five others. Junior right-handed pitcher Nathan Berg pitched the seventh inning where he walked and struck out one to seal the game.
Both sides had one error in the first game of the doubleheader. In terms of runners left on base, MSU had six stranded while UMD left four aboard in the contest.
GAME ONE (7 INNINGS) | Minnesota State 13, Minnesota Duluth 1
MSU picked up where it left off in game two with a five-run first inning that began with junior outfielder Ryan Wickman blasting a first-pitch leadoff home run over the leftfield fence to make it 1-0. Senior outfielder Cam Kline crushed the eventual game-winning hit, a two-run home run to left, in the next at bat to make it 3-0. Gottschalk hit the Mavericks' third home run of the inning as well as his third of the afternoon three batters later to make it 5-0 in the first inning.
After the Bulldogs scored their first run of the day in the bottom of the third inning on an RBI single from Tosten Mann to right, senior catcher Ben Livorsi answered with an RBI single of his own to center in the top of the fourth. After four frames at Bowyer Field in game two, the Mavericks led the Bulldogs 6-1.
MSU piled on three more runs in the sixth and four in the seventh before winning by way of the 10-run rule in seven innings.
Junior right-handed pitcher Nick Altermatt was the Mavericks' starting pitcher in game two and amassed five innings of work. He improved to a perfect 5-0 record on the season after allowing one run on four hits in the midst of walking two and striking out a season-high 10 batters. Additionally, Altermatt batted for the Purple and Gold in both of Saturday's contests, where he went four-for-eight with five runs scored and six RBI on three home runs.
The Mavericks claimed the hits battle, 17-5, over the Bulldogs again in the second game. UMD came down with the only two errors in game two. MSU had nine runners left on base in the final game of the doubleheader while UMD had eight stranded.
MSU and UMD rematch for the series finale on Sunday at Bowyer Field. First pitch has been bumped up one hour to 11:00 a.m. at Bowyer Field due to impending weather in the Mankato area.
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