WARRENSBURG, Mo. -- The fourth-seed Minnesota State baseball team was defeated 10-9 by fifth-seed Augustana in the first game of the 2022 NCAA Central Region Tournament at Tompkins Field at Crane Stadium, Thursday afternoon.

The Mavericks, now 39-8 on the season, move into the loser's side of the bracket and face elimination after opening the tournament on a losing note. The Vikings are now 45-10-1 on the year following the win. This season's series between MSU and AU is now all squared up at three games in six meeting between the NSIC foes.

After Maverick pitcher Nick Altermatt hung a zero on Augie in the top half of the first inning, he laced an RBI triple to the right corner to drive in Ryan Wickman and later scored on an RBI knock up the middle by Jackson Hauge. 

The Vikings tied the game, 2-2, in the second inning when Max Mosser singled up the middle to score JT Mix and Luke Ballweg. In the bottom half of the inning, Altermatt continued to swing the hot stick and roped a double that found the wall in the left-center alley and scored a pair. After Augie made a move to the bullpen, the Mavericks capped a three-run three-hit inning when Mikey Gottschalk poked a single through the left side to bring in Altermatt. With two innings down in Warrensburg, the Mavericks led the Vikings 5-2.

Mosser helped Augie chip away at the Mavericks' lead again in the fourth when he knocked one through the right side to drive in Jaxon Rosencranz. Augie cut the deficit to one later in the inning when Drey Dirksen scored on a slow groundout to third batter by Carter Howell. The Mavericks responded with an RBI single through the left side off Kline's bat in the bottom half to increase the lead to 6-4.

Over the course of the next four innings, the Vikings took over the lead by scoring three runs in the fifth, a pair in the sixth and one more in the eighth to take a 10-6 advantage. It marked their first lead of the afternoon.

MSU mounted a comeback effort in the ninth but came up one run short of tying the game. Adam Schneider hit his third home run of the season, a three-run shot over the fence in right, to shrink the Mavericks' deficit to one. However, Augie held MSU there to prevail by a final score of 10-9 to advance in the tournament.

On the mound for the Mavericks, Altermatt made his 11th start of the season and had his perfect record tarnished with his first loss to fall to 10-1. He pitched 4.1 innings where he allowed eight hits for seven runs (six earned). He walked two AU batters and had one strikeout. 

The Vikings edged the Mavericks in hits, 14-13. Three MSU errors allowed a pair of unearned runs to score for AU while each of Augie's runs were earned in the contest. The Mavericks had three errors while the Vikings had a pair of defensive miscues.

With the loss, MSU moves to the loser's bracket and will take on the loser of top-seed Central Missouri and eighth-seed Ouachita Baptist in an elimination game Friday in Warrensburg, Mo. First pitch for game one has been bumped up two hours to noon to accommodate for potential inclement weather in the area.

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