Huskies advance to Sioux Falls portion of NSIC Championships with series sweep of U-Mary

Friday, May 14

St. Cloud, MN

12:30 p.m.

St. Cloud State

22-12

University of Mary

21-20

University of Mary

St. Cloud State

Photo by: Kylie Macziewski

Huskies advance to Sioux Falls portion of NSIC Championships with series sweep of U-Mary

5/14/2021 3:55:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

St. Cloud State Baseball (22-12, 18-9 NSIC) picked up 7.0 strong innings of work from Trevor Koenig and used three multi-run innings to sweep away the University of Mary (21-20, 18-14 NSIC) by an 8-5 final in game two of their Opening Round series on Friday. With the series sweep, the Huskies move on to the double-elimination four-team final portion of the NSIC Championships beginning on Wednesday, May 19.

"Other than a little hiccup in the eighth inning we really played a fabulous game," said head coach Pat Dolan, "Again led by pitching, Trevor has been unbelievable over his last seven starts. Add in your clean defense for 17 innings and that's the biggest improvement we've made the last two months as at one point we were 11th in the conference in defense. I believe we're leading the conference in hitting and in the top three pitching-wise and if we play defense like this we're going to have a chance in Sioux Falls."

Scattered rain showers throughout the Granite City pushed Friday's start time back to 12:30 p.m., but the delay seemed to have no effect on Koenig. The southpaw worked 7.0 frames of six-hit, two-walk baseball and allowed just one run while striking out 10 Marauders.

The Huskies' bats got things going early as John Nett (2-for-5, 2 R, 2B) cracked a double to lead off the first and Paul Steffensen (1-for-4, R) singled to short two batters later. After a strikeout, Matt Quade (2-for-4, R, 2 RBI) dumped a two-run single to shallow left, scoring Steffensen from first as the Mary left fielder lost his footing on the wet grass.

Nett singled to open the third, then Max Gamm (0-for-5, R) reached on a fielding error to put two on for Steffensen. SCSU's left fielder moved both men up on a groundout, setting the stage for Jake Shusterich (3-for-4, 2 R, HR, 3 RBI) to poke a two-run single back up the middle.

U-Mary scored their lone run off Koenig in the fifth.

Shusterich and Quade opened up the sixth with back-to-back singles and were advanced 90 feet on a Lenny Walker (1-for-3, 2B, SAC) sacrifice bunt. Tate Wallat (1-for-3, BB, R) drew a walk, then a wild pitch plated Shusterich. Drew Bulson (1-for-4, RBI) lined an RBI single to right, scoring Quade, then Tyler Schiller (0-for-1, RBI) reached on an error that brought home Wallat and gave the Huskies a 7-1 advantage.

Shusterich closed out the Huskies' scoring with a seventh-inning laser solo shot to left field, his fifth of the season, while Riley Ahern (HD, 1.0 IP, K), Jack Habeck (HD, 0.1 IP) and Fabian Villegas (SV, 0.1 IP, K)closed out the Marauders following a four-run eighth.

St. Cloud State will play the winner of the Augustana vs Winona State series on Wednesday, May 19 at 6:00 p.m. CST in the first game of the double-elimination portion of the NSIC Championships held at Ronken Field in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.