Riley Ahern Shines in First Career Start, #11 SCSU Defeats Morningside 7-1

Saturday, March 9

6:30 PM MST

St. Cloud State

12-1

Morningside College (Iowa)

7-2

Morningside College

St. Cloud State

Photo by: Zach Siggelkow

Riley Ahern Shines in First Career Start, #11 SCSU Defeats Morningside 7-1

3/10/2019 1:31:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score

The redshirt freshman recorded a career high of eight strikeouts in his seven innings of work.

TUCSON, Ariz. - Following two victories over NSIC opponents on Friday at the Tucson Invitational Games, the #11 St. Cloud State baseball team (12-1, 0-0 NSIC) picked up their seventh consecutive win with a 7-1 victory over Morningside College on Saturday, March 9th. Saturday's win over the Mustangs featured notable career milestones for SCSU underclassmen, with Riley Ahern and Ean Von Wald each recording their first collegiate starts while Dylan Haskamp made his first collegiate pitching appearance as well.

Riley Ahern delivered for the Huskies in their Saturday night cap, tossing seven innings of shutout baseball while notching eight strikeouts. Ahern did not allow a walk while scattering three hits in his first collegiate start. In relief of Ahern was Dylan Haskamp, who provided SCSU with one clean inning that featured two strikeouts in his collegiate debut on the bump. Closing things out for SCSU was Zach Iten, who also recorded two strikeouts in his one inning of work.

St. Cloud State jumped on the Mustangs early, first receiving a single from Meyer, then a two-run shot from Mitch Mallek to put SCSU up 2-0 in the first. The Huskies would hold a 2-0 lead until the fourth, where they were able to add four runs on three hits and one walk. Ethan Ibarra started the inning by drawing a walk before being singled in by Mat Meyer, then Mitch Mallek would pick up his third RBI of the game by singling home Meyer. Then, Lenny Walker singled home Mallek to give SCSU a 5-0 advantage. SCSU would add one in both the fifth and sixth innings courtesy of RBI's from Aaron Hammann and Walker. St. Cloud State held their 7-0 lead until the ninth inning when Morningside avoided being shutout by collecting one hit, a walk and utilzing two balk calls to their advantage.

As a team, SCSU posted 13 hits compared to Morningside's four. The Huskies' pitching staff only allowed one walk on the night compared to the Mustangs' six.

#11 St. Cloud State will wrap up the Tucson Invitational Games on Sunday, March 10 at 10 AM MST with a rematch against Concordia-St. Paul. The action will be broadcasted live on the KVSC Sports Stream with live stats being provided by Concordia-St. Paul at this link.

Huskies WIN‼️
Riley Ahern picks up his first collegiate ice bath after tossing seven shutout innings and picking up six K's 👀💦#unleashGRIT pic.twitter.com/xPPXt8DbN4
— St. Cloud State Baseball (@SCSUHUSKIES_BB) March 10, 2019