WINONA, Minn. – Winona State baseball finalized its first series sweep of the season on Friday at Loughrey Field by winning the final two games of its set against Minnesota Crookston. The Warrior bats remained hot for the doubleheader sweep and Aaron Mutter turned in a career performance in game one.
WSU won the opener, 7-1, and capped the four-game sweep with an 11-5 victory in the finale.
Mutter (1-1) struck out six Golden Eagles over his first three innings of work and concluded his second career complete game with 10 strikeouts. The sophomore surrendered an unearned run in the fourth inning but was lights out after that.
Sam Kohnle broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fourth when he found the gap in left center, scoring Andrew Pliner. Two batters later, Tanner Williams singled home Kohnle and later scored on a Crookston error to make it 3-0.
The Warriors scored in each of the remaining three innings, plating one run apiece in the fifth and sixth, as well as two in the seventh to seal the series win with a 7-1 victory.
Kohnle again got the Warriors started in game two as he hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored Zac Stange.
Winona State added five more in the second as the Warriors loaded the bases to start the inning. Logan Grunenwald doubled into the gap to plate a pair of runners. Stange followed that up with an infield single to second base that scored Derek Martin. Taylor Field would complete the five-run inning for Winona State as he plated Stange and Grunenwald on a single to left.
Game two starter Austin Savary worked himself into a jam in the bottom of the sixth as he would give up one run and then proceed to load the bases with nobody out. After giving up the run, the lefty bared down and struck out the side to end the inning.
The Warriors came close to ending the ballgame early as they scored two runs in the top of the seventh to take an 11-1 lead, but UMC battled back in the bottom half of the inning scoring three runs off of Warrior reliever Jacob Huebsch who came in for Savary to start the inning.
Jackson Stensgard relieved Huebsch in the seventh and stopped the bleeding from there. Stensgard would only allow one more Golden Eagle to score as he gave up two hits and struck out three in 2.2 innings of work.
With the sweep, Winona State (9-12, 8-6 NSIC) climbs above .500 in conference play for the first time this season. Minnesota Crookston falls to 10-16 (0-11 NSIC).
The Warriors are back in action next Wednesday as they host Wayne State in a doubleheader beginning at 1:30 from Loughrey Field.
