St. Cloud State Baseball Holds on to Beat UC Colorado Springs, 16-15

Tuesday, March 1

Colorado Springs, CO

2:00 p.m. CST

St. Cloud State

3-5

UC-Colorado Springs

4-10

St. Cloud St.

UC-Colo. Spgs.

Photo by: Kylie Macziewski

St. Cloud State Baseball Holds on to Beat UC Colorado Springs, 16-15

3/1/2022 9:11:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Steffensen and Navratil hit home runs in slugfest

PUEBLO, Colo – Redshirt Freshman Luke Tupy (4.1, 6 H, 3 R, BB, 12 SO) had a career day on the mound in his second start of the season, fanning 12 Mountain Lions in a 16-15 road trip finale win for St. Cloud State (3-5) over UC Colorado Springs. Offensively, the Huskies were led by Senior Paul Steffensen (3-for-5, HR, 3 RBI, 2 R, 2 SB) and true Freshman Ethan Navratil (2-for-5, 2-Run HR, 4 RBI, BB), who both went deep in the ballgame. St. Cloud entered the bottom of the ninth with a six-run lead that was quickly erased too one, but redshirt Sophomore Thommy Thompson (0.1, H, BB) came on to close the game out in a thriller at Mountain Lion Park where St. Cloud won, 16-15.

KEY MOMENT

SCSU led 11-6 with the bats in-hand in the eighth inning and were able to plate four more runs to add some insurance in the later innings. Redshirt Sophomore John Nett (1-for-5, 2B, 2 RBI, BB) started the scoring with an RBI double to right scoring Max Gamm (2-for-4, 3B, RBI, 3 R). Steffensen followed up with an RBI single then Sophomore Mitchell Gumbko (1-for-2, 2 RBI) capped off the inning with a two out two RBI single.

TOP HUSKIES

Redshirt Junior Sam Riola (1-for-3, 2-Run HR, 4 R, 3 BB, 3 SB) went deep for the 5^th time on the road trip to Colorado.
Navratil hit his first collegiate Home Run with a no doubter to left field finishing the game with career high 4 RBI.
Max Gamm (2-for-4, 3B, RBI, 3 R) had his best game of the road trip after being hitless through the first three games.

NOTES

Tupy's 12 strikeouts is eighth-most all-time in SCSU history for most strikeouts in a game. The last Husky to do reach 12 punchouts was Dominic Austing against Central Oklahoma in May, 2019.
The Huskies broke their season high in runs after setting the mark just a couple of days ago against U of Mary with 13.
St. Cloud State went 4-10 with two outs and scored five out of their 15 runs with two outs

QUOTABLES

Redshirt Freshman Luke Tupy

"It felt good to get back on the mound after a not-so-great start for me (in Arkansas), and to be able to set the tempo from the start to keep us in the game and get back on the winning track. I was able to take advantage of the zone today with my fastball and use the outside corner to get most of my strikeouts. I'd say pounding the zone was my biggest strength today and just attacking hitters right away. It feels good to leave Colorado Springs with a W!"

UP NEXT

St. Cloud State will travel to the Sunshine State for their final trip out of Minnesota before conference play. The Huskies will play six games in seven days starting Monday, Mar. 7. Game times are still TBD.

For all the latest on St. Cloud State Baseball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.