DULUTH, Minn. - The Winona State University baseball team opened up their three-game series at the University of Minnesota Duluth with a win on Sunday, April 10, defeating UMD 6-3.
Starting pitcher
Nicolas Herold brought his best stuff to the Bulldogs, going seven full innings and claiming the victory. Herold struck out 11 UMD batters and conceded just one earned run en route to his third win of the year. Herold (3-0) scattered five hits and retired the UMD side in order in the third, fourth and fifth frames, while extending the Warriors' winning streak over the Bulldogs to five games, dating back to April 7, 2019.
Fans on hand at Wade Stadium were treated to stellar pitching in the contest, as Herold and his Bulldog counterpart Ben Shepard, combined for three scoreless innings to start the contest. After one cycle through the lineup however, Winona State was able to break through, with
Miller Wallace driving a triple to right field and scoring
Derek Baumgartner to break the deadlock. Wallace scored moments later on a
Austin Beyer single, creating a 2-0 Warrior advantage that remained unchanged until the seventh inning.
In the seventh, Winona State's
Dane Weiland drove in
Kyle Yu with a single to right field to make it 3-0, but the Bulldogs answered in the bottom half of the inning with their first run of the game, to make it 3-1 Warriors.
The eighth inning saw both teams add significantly to their scorelines, as Winona State scored three runs in the top of the inning and UMD two in the bottom of the same frame. However, in the ninth, Warrior reliever
Caleb Strack closed the door on UMD, striking out two of the final three batters he faced to conclude the game.
At the plate, Winona State saw five different Warriors collect two hits each in the game, with
Mason Trocke,
Kyle Yu,
Derek Baumgartner,
Miller Wallace and
Nick Herbst each providing offense for head coach
Kyle Poock. Wallace's triple was his first of the season, and just the second of the 2022 campaign for WSU. Trocke and Herbst both had doubles on the day, and five different Warriors had one RBI each in a balanced Warrior offense.
Defensively, Winona State's
Derek Baumgartner threw out UMD's Tosten Mann attempting to steal in the bottom of the sixth to defuse a potential Bulldog rally, while both teams committed two miscues in the game. WSU scored six runs on 12 hits, while UMD scored 3 times on two hits.
Winona State (7-12, 5-3 NSIC) will play a doubleheader with Minnesota Duluth (11-13, 5-6 NSIC) tomorrow, Monday, April 11. WSU and UMD will play a 7-inning game at 10:30 a.m., followed by a 9-innning contest.
