WINONA, Minn. – The Winona State University baseball team opened its home slate at Loughrey Field on Wednesday afternoon with a sweep of Bemidji State University. On a beautiful spring afternoon, the Warriors played as the visitor on the scoreboard for the doubleheader originally scheduled to be played in Bemidji.
Under sunny skies, the Warriors put on a hitting clinic with 22 total hits on the day to support strong starts by Aaron Mutter and Dillon Whittaker. Winona State prevailed in the opener, 3-2, and coasted to a 9-3 victory in the nightcap.
The Warriors improve to 13-10 (7-5 NSIC) while Bemidji State falls to 2-22 (1-11 NSIC).
Mutter (2-1) posted his third quality start of the season for WSU in game one. The junior allowed two runs on just five hits over 6.0 IP while striking out two batters in the win. Mutter's only blemish of the day came on a two-run Beaver homer in the fifth frame. In the nightcap, Whittaker (3-2) struck out a season-high eight batters over 6.0 IP.
Winona State's bullpen was flawless once again in Wednesday's twinbill. Nicholas Herold struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh inning of game one for his sixth save of the season while extending his scoreless streak to 11.1 IP. Jacob Watzka and Parker Holmstrom went back-to-back in the finale, only allowing two Beavers to reach base over the final three innings of game two.
Winona State plated all three of its runs in the fourth inning of the opening ballgame. Chad Herbst led off the frame with a double and advanced to third on a perfect sacrifice bunt by Andrew Pliner. Two batters later, Nathan Loomis singled home Herbst to break the scoring seal. Loomis proceeded to swipe second and score on a Derek Martin single to left field. Zac Stange extended the two-out rally with a walk and later scored on an RBI-single by Tanner Williams to make it a 3-0 affair.
After the Bemidji State homer in the fifth, Mutter retired seven of the next eight batters he faced before turning the ball over to Herold for the save and WSU win.
The Warriors wasted little time in game two putting crooked numbers on the scoreboard, with two in the first and three more in the second frame for a 5-0 lead. The Warriors took advantage of a couple Beaver miscues in the first inning as Martin scored on a passed ball to plate the game's first run. Stange later scored from second on a ball off the bat of Sam Kohnle that resulted in another Bemidji error.
In the second inning, Herbst, Pliner and Derek Baumgartner singled in order to begin the frame with two runs scoring on the freshman catcher's hit to left field. Kohnle added a two-out, RBI-single to plate Baumgartner later in the inning as the WSU lead swelled to 5-0.
On the mound, Whittaker was spot-on through his first five innings of work, only giving up three hits as the Warrior offense continued to pad its lead. Herbst and Austin Savary added run-scoring hits as part of Winona State's four-run barrage over the final innings of the tilt as the Warrior lead increased to 9-0.
Whittaker appeared to run out of gas in the bottom of the sixth as the Beavers plated all three of their runs with two out in the inning. Watzka and Holmstrom took over on the mound from there and silenced the Bemidji State bats.
Loomis swiped a pair of bags on Wednesday as five different Warriors combined to steal six bases in the doubleheader sweep. Martin and Herbst both finished the day 4-for-8 at the plate.
Winona State is scheduled to continue NSIC action with a four-game series at Minnesota Duluth this weekend. Stay tuned to WinonaStateWarriors.com for potential weather-related changes to those games.
