Wayne, Neb. – The Winona State University baseball team continued their winning ways on Wednesday, beating Wayne State College twice to extend their winning streak to eight games.
The 6-2 and 11-6 wins over the Wildcats moved Winona State to 17-10 overall and 14-8 in the NSIC.
Game One
Bailey Banaszynski took the hill in game one for Winona State and went five innings for head coach
Kyle Poock and the Warriors. The sophomore from Milwaukee struck out eight, walked three and conceded five hits total on the day.
Winona State had only one extra-base hit in the game, but it came at the right time, with
Derek Baumgartner's double in the fifth inning scoring
Tanner Williams and
Sam Kohnle, stretching a Warrior one-run advantage to a 5-3 mark.
Austin Savary scored minutes later to complete a four-run fifth frame, which proved to be the story of the game.
WSU had opened the scoring in the second inning, with
Carter Brinkman bringing home
Austin Savary to put the Warriors up 1-0. Winona State pushed their lead to 2-0 in the top of the third when
Tanner Williams drove home
Nick Herbst, but the Wildcats responded in the bottom half of the inning with two runs of their own to knot the game at 2-2.
The game remained tied until the fifth, when Baumgartner and the Warriors increased their advantage to 6-2.
Peter Tveite pitched the sixth inning for Winona State, sending the Wildcats down in order and
Nicolas Herold took the mound in the seventh. Harold also made short work of Wayne State, striking out the first two batters he faced and forcing a ground ball to end the game.
Wildcat starter Brody Sinteck went four and one-third innings against the Warriors, conceding all six runs, five of which were earned.
Derek Martin,
Tanner Williams and
Carter Brinkman each had two hits in the game, as WSU saw 11 singles comprise the vast majority of their 12 hits.
Banaszynski earned his team-leading fourth win of the season for Winona State which comes in his eighth appearance of the season and sixth start. Additionally,
Sam Kohnle's single in the opener moved him into first all-time in that category with a 172 over his career.
Game Two
In the nightcap, WSU fell behind twice in the early stages of the contest, before using a seventh-inning surge to tie the game and eventually take the lead for good.
Justin Firpo got the start for the Warriors, going four full innings and conceding four runs, three of which were earned. Firpo struck out three Wildcats before giving way to
Mitchell Mueller who earned the victory. As in game one,
Peter Tveite and
Nicolas Herold combined to close out the final two innings in the Warrior win.
Wayne State took a 1-0 lead after the first inning before
Nick Herbst scored
Nathan Loomis in the third inning on a sacrifice play to tie the game at 1-1. The Wildcats moved to a 4-1 advantage in the fourth inning and looked to be poised to snap the Warrior win streak at seven.
Nick Herbst had other plans however, homering in fifth inning and scoring Loomis for the second time in the game, bringing the Warriors to within a run at 4-3.
In the seventh, the Warrior offense scored four times, with
Austin Savary,
Joe Ihrke and
Austin Beyer all collecting RBI's. Beyer's double plated
Derek Baumgartner and Savary to cap a Warrior rally that resulted in a 8-4 scoreline in favor of Winona State after seven innings of play.
WSU hit the repeat button in the eighth, with Martin, Savary and Ihrke all scoring on a combination of base hits, Wildcat errors, and a WSU wild pitch.
Although Wayne State scored single runs in the bottom of the eighth and ninth inning, it was too little, too late for Wayne State, as the Warriors boarded the bus with a 11-6 win in their collective back pocket. The Warriors saw their power hitters regain some form in game two, with
Nick Herbst (home run)
Nathan Loomis (triple) and
Austin Beyer (double) all contributing significantly to the WSU scoreline.
Derek Martin also stole a base in the eighth inning.
The doubleheader sweep is the third straight series win for Winona State, and positions WSU favorably in a weekend showdown with Augustana University in the cozy confines of Loughrey Field.
The Vikings, 22-7 overall and 18-7 in the NSIC, have won four of their last five games and sit just above Winona State in third place in the NSIC.
For the most up to date news in Warrior Athletics, please visit:
www.WINONASTATEWARRIORS.com and
@WinonaStateATH.
About Winona State University Athletics:
The Winona State University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, as an integral part of the educational mission of the institution, is committed to offering opportunities to experience academic and athletic excellence for our student-athletes through two simple words:
Graduate Champions.
Fourteen Warrior programs compete at the NCAA Division II level within the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC). Winona State University competes as an affiliate member of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) in the sport of women's gymnastics.
