BETTENDORF, Iowa – Despite its highest scoring offensive output of the young season, Winona State University suffered a 14-12 loss in its first conference game of the season to Northern State University on Friday afternoon at TBK Bank Sports Complex.
The Warriors are playing as the home team for the three-game weekend series that was moved to Bettendorf, Iowa due to field conditions in Winona.
The Wolves launched four homers in Friday's opener which accounted for 11 runs and ultimately was the difference in the ballgame. Each of the long balls came with two outs in the respective inning against the WSU pitching staff.
Winona State's lone lead of the affair came in the first frame after Aaron Mutter sat the Wolves down in order in the top of the inning and the Warrior bats got to work in the bottom half. Tanner Williams and Sam Kohnle each singled with one out and Austin Savary produced the first run with an RBI-single. A groundout by Andrew Pliner chased home Kohle and made it a 2-0 tilt before the inning came to an end.
Northern State's first round-tripper, a three-run blast, came in the top of the second to wipe away the WSU lead and the Wolves proceeded to take a 9-2 advantage on a grand slam to cap the third inning. An RBI-single by Chad Herbst made a dent in the NSU lead in the bottom of the third before both offenses were blanked in the fourth and fifth frames.
A two-run NSU homer in the top of the sixth inning extended the lead to 11-3, and Winona State began to chip away at its deficit in the bottom of the sixth. Nathan Loomis recorded a two-run double ahead of an RBI-single by Stange and a sac fly by Kohnle to make it an 11-7 game. The Wolves wasted little time padding their lead once again with three more runs in the top of the seventh, including a two-run bomb.
The Warriors answered with five unanswered runs over the next two innings, but were unable to dig all the way out of the hole they had built early. Loomis drove in runs in both the seventh and eighth frame to finish the day 2-for-4 with a career-best five RBI.
Eight of Winona State's nine starters collected at least one RBI in the high-scoring affair while eight different players as scored at least one run. Herbst, Williams and Nick Nalewanski joined Loomis with two hits apiece.
Mutter (0-1) was tagged with the loss after allowing nine runs on eight hits over 5.0 IP. Freshman Levi Schaller turned in his second straight scoreless relief appearance for the Warriors, allowing just one hit over 2.1 IP while striking out three batters.
Winona State (6-6) concludes its weekend series with Northern State (6-6) with a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon beginning at 12 p.m.
