Saturday, March 11
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Noon CT
St. Cloud State
4-7
5
at
6
Nova Southeastern
10-9
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
R
H
E
St. Cloud State
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
4
0
5
8
0
Nova Southeastern
0
0
3
1
0
0
1
0
0
1
6
11
1
Huskies walked off in extras to close series at Nova Southeastern
3/11/2023 11:00:00 PM | Baseball
Late rally spoiled as St. Cloud State swept 6-5 on walk-off safety squeeze in 10th
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – St. Cloud State Baseball (4-7, 0-0 NSIC) erased a 5-1 deficit entering the ninth inning to send their series finale with Nova Southeastern (10-9, 3-3 SSC) to extras but was walked off an inning later for the 6-5 sweep-clinching setback on Saturday afternoon in Fort Lauderdale.
John Nett (3-for-5, BB, R, SB) reached four times as part of a three-hit game while Sawyer Smith (2-for-5, R) added a two-hit finale.
Sam Riola struck out five over 3.2 innings of four-run ball, scattering seven hits and three walks while exiting a 4-0 game. Jack Habeck took over and threw brilliantly the rest of the way to keep the Huskies in it, allowing just two runs on four hits while walking none and striking out a pair across 6.1 innings of work.
Down 4-0 entering the sixth, Garrett Bevacqua singled home Smith with one away to cut the deficit to three. Nova Southeastern added a run in the seventh and kept the Huskies at one run through eight, heading to the ninth leading 5-1.
Nett opened the Huskies' ninth with an infield single, followed by a pinch-hit single dished into center by Drew Beier (1-for-2, R) before Riola (0-for-5, BB, R) watched ball four to load the bases. Two batters later, a wild pitch plated Nett then Brayden Jacobson (0-for-0, BB, R) and Noah Dehne (0-for-0, BB, RBI) worked back-to-back walks to make it a 5-3 game. Mason Primus (0-for-0, 3 BB, RBI) drew a bases-loaded walk, then another wild pitch brought home Jacobson for the tying run.
Nova Southeastern walked things off in the home half of the tenth on a well-executed safety squeeze with one away and runners on the corners.
Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Pat Dolan
"Obviously the final results – losing three games – is not what we had planned. Nova's perennially a top-five, nationally competitive program and they're a good ball club for a reason. They were better than us. I'll give them that one hundred percent – they played a little bit better defense, they pitched a bit better and they hit a lot bit better than us. The game yesterday is 5-4 in the eighth with Riola warmed up and ready to go before they score a couple, and then today it's 5-5 with the bases loaded and we didn't produce in a couple of chances to take the lead. We had guys in scoring position seven out of nine innings today, and that's the disappointing part. You play so well defensively, Habeck and Riola really grinded out and pitched well – to lose a game like this is disappointing, but in the bigger scope of things we knew playing the programs we scheduled early on is going to benefit us late in the year. We are who we are, we're 4-7, but we are no more than 10 plays away from being 9-2. That's our positive we're taking."
Takeaways from the series at Nova Southeastern… "I knew we had depth. You look at it today – we played 15 to 17 players, we've already done that about eight times. We've got some options with lefty/righty matchups. Our starting pitchers all competed, it's just different throwing when it's 85 and sunny than it is in cooler temperatures. We've got to get our pitchers out of the fourth inning. We don't want to overthrow anyone obviously. Our four extended guys each went at most four innings – we've got to start pitching deeper into ball games. We get Luke Tupy back on Monday, and that's going to be a big boost for us. Our bullpen is a little of a concern – they've got to get better. That's what hurt us in five or six of our losses this year. We need a few guys to step up – one that did that for us this weekend was Sawyer Smith, he's moved up the ladder, and Drew Beier pitched really well. We weren't clicking on all cylinders offensively. We have some really, really good players who just didn't produce to the best of their ability this weekend. When you're playing a big team like that, you need to have more than a few guys step up."
Looking ahead to next week to close out the Florida trip… "First and foremost, we get to reset with a day off for the guys – we did this for a reason, there's about 130 family members here and our guys are going get to have some fun in Florida and a mental refresher. Then on Monday we get rolling again against some really good teams. We don't have our starting pitchers quite ready to bounce back yet, so we'll see what we have. Tupy will be on a limit on Monday, then it's 'Johnny Wholestaff' the rest of the way. We'll see what kind of pitching staff we have, what kind of bullpen we have. We'll also keep mixing and matching the lineups with our depth – we'll be alright."
Up Next
The Huskies have a day off on Sunday before returning to action in Florida with a Monday afternoon tilt against Caldwell in Lake Worth. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. CT.
For all the latest on St. Cloud State Baseball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
John Nett (3-for-5, BB, R, SB) reached four times as part of a three-hit game while Sawyer Smith (2-for-5, R) added a two-hit finale.
Sam Riola struck out five over 3.2 innings of four-run ball, scattering seven hits and three walks while exiting a 4-0 game. Jack Habeck took over and threw brilliantly the rest of the way to keep the Huskies in it, allowing just two runs on four hits while walking none and striking out a pair across 6.1 innings of work.
Down 4-0 entering the sixth, Garrett Bevacqua singled home Smith with one away to cut the deficit to three. Nova Southeastern added a run in the seventh and kept the Huskies at one run through eight, heading to the ninth leading 5-1.
Nett opened the Huskies' ninth with an infield single, followed by a pinch-hit single dished into center by Drew Beier (1-for-2, R) before Riola (0-for-5, BB, R) watched ball four to load the bases. Two batters later, a wild pitch plated Nett then Brayden Jacobson (0-for-0, BB, R) and Noah Dehne (0-for-0, BB, RBI) worked back-to-back walks to make it a 5-3 game. Mason Primus (0-for-0, 3 BB, RBI) drew a bases-loaded walk, then another wild pitch brought home Jacobson for the tying run.
Nova Southeastern walked things off in the home half of the tenth on a well-executed safety squeeze with one away and runners on the corners.
Quotables – St. Cloud State head coach Pat Dolan
"Obviously the final results – losing three games – is not what we had planned. Nova's perennially a top-five, nationally competitive program and they're a good ball club for a reason. They were better than us. I'll give them that one hundred percent – they played a little bit better defense, they pitched a bit better and they hit a lot bit better than us. The game yesterday is 5-4 in the eighth with Riola warmed up and ready to go before they score a couple, and then today it's 5-5 with the bases loaded and we didn't produce in a couple of chances to take the lead. We had guys in scoring position seven out of nine innings today, and that's the disappointing part. You play so well defensively, Habeck and Riola really grinded out and pitched well – to lose a game like this is disappointing, but in the bigger scope of things we knew playing the programs we scheduled early on is going to benefit us late in the year. We are who we are, we're 4-7, but we are no more than 10 plays away from being 9-2. That's our positive we're taking."
Takeaways from the series at Nova Southeastern… "I knew we had depth. You look at it today – we played 15 to 17 players, we've already done that about eight times. We've got some options with lefty/righty matchups. Our starting pitchers all competed, it's just different throwing when it's 85 and sunny than it is in cooler temperatures. We've got to get our pitchers out of the fourth inning. We don't want to overthrow anyone obviously. Our four extended guys each went at most four innings – we've got to start pitching deeper into ball games. We get Luke Tupy back on Monday, and that's going to be a big boost for us. Our bullpen is a little of a concern – they've got to get better. That's what hurt us in five or six of our losses this year. We need a few guys to step up – one that did that for us this weekend was Sawyer Smith, he's moved up the ladder, and Drew Beier pitched really well. We weren't clicking on all cylinders offensively. We have some really, really good players who just didn't produce to the best of their ability this weekend. When you're playing a big team like that, you need to have more than a few guys step up."
Looking ahead to next week to close out the Florida trip… "First and foremost, we get to reset with a day off for the guys – we did this for a reason, there's about 130 family members here and our guys are going get to have some fun in Florida and a mental refresher. Then on Monday we get rolling again against some really good teams. We don't have our starting pitchers quite ready to bounce back yet, so we'll see what we have. Tupy will be on a limit on Monday, then it's 'Johnny Wholestaff' the rest of the way. We'll see what kind of pitching staff we have, what kind of bullpen we have. We'll also keep mixing and matching the lineups with our depth – we'll be alright."
Up Next
The Huskies have a day off on Sunday before returning to action in Florida with a Monday afternoon tilt against Caldwell in Lake Worth. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. CT.
For all the latest on St. Cloud State Baseball, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: S. Schissler (2-1)
L: Habeck, Jack (0-3)
Batting:
RBI: Dehne, Noah 1 ; Primus, Mason 1 ; Bevacqua, Garrett 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Nett, John 1 ; Beier, Drew 1 ; Riola, Sam 1 ; Smith, Sawyer 1 ; Jacobson, Brayden 1
SB: Nett, John 1
Batting:
2B: D. Pastore 1
RBI: D. Pastore 2 ; D. Irisarri 1 ; A. Smith 2 ; R. Cainzos 1
SF: D. Pastore 1 ; D. Irisarri 1 ; M. Franco 1
Base Running:
RUNS: S. Schissler 2 ; K. Noriega 2 ; I. Castaneda 1 ; M. Sagaro 1
SB: G. Delgado 1
CS: G. Delgado 1
HBP: S. Schissler 1
Game Leaders
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
0
ph/rf
AB
2
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
2
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
RHP/IF
/ Baseball
CI/OF
/ Baseball
IF
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
IF/OF
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
IF/RHP
/ Baseball
St Cloud State Baseball Vs Southwest Minnesota State Game 4
Sunday, March 16
St Cloud State Baseball Vs Southwest Minnesota State Game 3
Sunday, March 16
St Cloud State Baseball Vs Southwest Minnesota State Game 2
Thursday, March 13
St Cloud State Baseball Vs Southwest Minnesota State Game 1
Thursday, March 13
