ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Winona State baseball was unable to hold early leads in a pair of road losses against the St. Cloud State Huskies.
The Warriors took a 6-3 advantage into the last inning after a three-run home run from
Payton Kohnle. St. Cloud State then scored four runs in the final frame to earn a 7-6 win in game one. After a four-spot in the first inning by the Warriors, SCSU scored seven unanswered runs including five in the first frame to earn the 7-4 victory.
Game One: SCSU (7) – WSU (6)
WSU got on the board right away in the first inning after
Ethan Patterson reached on an error, scoring
Max Strecker, making it 1-0. The Warriors added another run in the second inning extending their edge to 2-0 when Kohnle doubled, scoring
Josh Hatano.
St. Cloud State knotted the contest at 2-2 in the bottom of the second. The game remained tied until the bottom of the fifth, when SCSU took the lead at 3-2 after an RBI double. A
Max Pederson single in the sixth tied the game back up at 3-3. A few batters later, Kohnle gave WSU a 6-3 edge with a three-run homer.
The Huskies recorded six straight singles in the bottom of the seventh, tying the game at 6-6. SCSU then hit a walk-off sacrifice fly to win 7-6 over WSU in game one.
Kohnle led the Winona State order with two hits and four RBIs while
Easton Arendt also tallied two hits.
Sawyer Hoffman took the start, going 4.2 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits with three strikeouts.
Boyd Skelley went 0.1 innings with Arendt (0-3) suffering the loss, as he went 1.1 innings, giving up seven hits and four earned runs.
Game Two: SCSU (7) – WSU (4)
Winona State jumped out to a 4-0 lead after a big first inning.
Boone Kirst started it off with an RBI single, plating Hatano. Then,
Ben Hefel and
Garrett Hietpas recorded back-to-back RBI walks to make it 3-0. Arendt ended the explosive inning, after scoring on a wild pitch, extending the WSU lead to 4-0.
St. Cloud State wasted no time getting back into the game, after a five-spot in the bottom of the first, capped off by a three-run home run, ending the high octane first inning 5-4 Huskies. SCSU added one run in the second, stretching their lead to 6-4.
A solo homer from the Huskies made it 7-4 after five innings. The Warriors bats remained cold after the first inning, only recording four hits in the loss.
Four Warriors recorded hits while drawing eight walks in the loss.
Eli Babler (0-2) took the loss after going 0.2 innings, giving up five earned runs on two hits.
Peyton Lee went 1.1 innings, allowing one earned run with
Ryan Buchta carrying the load, tossing 4.0 innings, giving up one earned run.
Logan LaPlante and
Brayden Deering each threw a scoreless inning apiece.
Winona State (14-19, 9-11 NSIC) finishes up the series with the third game set for 11:00am on Saturday, April 11 versus the Huskies.
