Thursday, April 18
St. Cloud, Minn.
1:30 P.M.
St. Cloud State
22-13, 18-7
7
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2
Minnesota Duluth
13-22, 9-17
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2
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4
5
6
7
R
H
E
Minnesota Duluth
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
2
6
0
St. Cloud State
1
0
3
0
0
3
X
7
8
1
Photo by: Brooke Purowitz
Smith Goes Yard Twice, Huskies Split Doubleheader with UMD
4/18/2024 10:48:00 PM | Baseball
Smith hits two home runs and has five long balls in last four games
ST. CLOUD, Minn. – St. Cloud State Baseball (22-14, 18-8 NSIC) earned a mid-week doubleheader split with Minnesota Duluth (14-22, 10-17 NSIC) on Thursday at Joe Faber Field. The Huskies won the first game, 7-2, behind three home runs and a complete game from junior Kaden Pfeffer (Racine, Wis.) before dropping a thrilling extra innings slug-fest, 14-13.
GAME 1 – SCSU 7, UMD 2
The Huskies jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning after graduate Cal James (Buffalo, Minn.) launched his third home run in as many games and 11th of the season. His bash brother partner then added to the lead in the third inning when junior Sawyer Smith (Somers, Wis.) hit a three-run home run, which also marked his third consecutive game with a long ball.
UMD cut SCSU's lead in half at 4-2 in the fourth inning, but then the Huskies extended the lead back to five in the sixth following a solo home run from redshirt junior Garrett Bevacqua (Carlsbad, Calif.) and a two-run single from redshirt senior Noah Dehne (St. Paul, Minn.).
Pfeffer was solid in his second start of the season, as he recorded his first complete games by going seven innings while only allowing one earned run on six hits with five strikeouts. Pfeffer worked quick in the game and needed only 93 pitches to get through seven innings, saving the Huskies' bullpen in the process.
TOP HUSKIES
GAME 2 – UMD 14, SCSU 13 (10 inn.)
SCSU was playing catch-up for the majority of the second game, falling behind 4-0, 6-3 and 12-5 in the game. The Huskies went in the bottom of the seventh down seven runs before Smith launched his second home run of the game, this time a grand slam to put the Huskies right back into it. In the eighth inning, the Huskies got some timely hitting with two outs as James, junior Ethan Navratil (Albany, Minn.) and Bevacqua all had RBI hits to give SCSU the lead at 13-12.
The Huskies' lead was short-lived, however, as the Bulldogs were able to score one run each in the top of the ninth and 10th innings to take the game, 14-13. SCSU had the bases loaded with no outs in the 10th inning but couldn't pull even to complete its comeback.
TOP HUSKIES
St. Cloud State will next head to Wayne State for a three-game series in Wayne, Neb. The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday, April 20 and a single game on Sunday, April 21 with both days scheduled to start at 12:00 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.
GAME 1 – SCSU 7, UMD 2
The Huskies jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning after graduate Cal James (Buffalo, Minn.) launched his third home run in as many games and 11th of the season. His bash brother partner then added to the lead in the third inning when junior Sawyer Smith (Somers, Wis.) hit a three-run home run, which also marked his third consecutive game with a long ball.
UMD cut SCSU's lead in half at 4-2 in the fourth inning, but then the Huskies extended the lead back to five in the sixth following a solo home run from redshirt junior Garrett Bevacqua (Carlsbad, Calif.) and a two-run single from redshirt senior Noah Dehne (St. Paul, Minn.).
Pfeffer was solid in his second start of the season, as he recorded his first complete games by going seven innings while only allowing one earned run on six hits with five strikeouts. Pfeffer worked quick in the game and needed only 93 pitches to get through seven innings, saving the Huskies' bullpen in the process.
TOP HUSKIES
- Pfeffer – W, 7.0 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 5 K
- Smith – 1-1, HR, 3 RBI
- James – 1-1, HR, RBI, 2 R, 2 BB
- Bevacqua – 2-3, HR, RBI
- Pfeffer had his best outing of the season in his sixth appearance and second start, going seven innings for his first career complete game. His five strikeouts were a season-best while his one earned run lowered his season ERA to 4.50.
- Smith remained hot while extending his hit streak to a team-best 13 games with his three-run home run in the fourth inning. The Husky junior launched a long ball for the fourth time in the last three games.
- James hit a home run of the third consecutive game and matched his career-best for a season with his 11th home run while hitting his 40th career home run overall.
- James is also now just one home run away from joining SCSU's top-10 list for home runs in a single season.
- Dehne had his seventh multi-RBI game of the season with his two-run single in the sixth inning.
- Bevacqua hit his third home run of the season while recording a hit in 26 of 31 games his played in this season.
GAME 2 – UMD 14, SCSU 13 (10 inn.)
SCSU was playing catch-up for the majority of the second game, falling behind 4-0, 6-3 and 12-5 in the game. The Huskies went in the bottom of the seventh down seven runs before Smith launched his second home run of the game, this time a grand slam to put the Huskies right back into it. In the eighth inning, the Huskies got some timely hitting with two outs as James, junior Ethan Navratil (Albany, Minn.) and Bevacqua all had RBI hits to give SCSU the lead at 13-12.
The Huskies' lead was short-lived, however, as the Bulldogs were able to score one run each in the top of the ninth and 10th innings to take the game, 14-13. SCSU had the bases loaded with no outs in the 10th inning but couldn't pull even to complete its comeback.
TOP HUSKIES
- Smith – 2-4, HR, 4 RBI, 2 R
- Bevacqua – 3-6, 2 R, RBI
- James – 3-5, RBI, 2 R
- Beier – 2-6, HR, RBI, 2 R
- SCSU scored 10 of more runs for the 10th time this season and are now scoring 8.0 runs per game.
- Smith extended his hit streak to a team-best 14 games with his eighth home run of the season and fifth in the last four games. He extended his team-lead to 45 RBI, a mark which ranks third in the NSIC.
- Bevacqua had a season-best three hits in the game and has now hit safely in 27 of 32 games he's played in this season.
- Beier extended his hit streak to 13 games with his third home run of the season.
- Navratil had his ninth multi-RBI game of the season.
- Junior Blaine Guthrie (Emerald, Wis.) had his first triple of the season and recorded his sixth multi-RBI of the season.
St. Cloud State will next head to Wayne State for a three-game series in Wayne, Neb. The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday, April 20 and a single game on Sunday, April 21 with both days scheduled to start at 12:00 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: Pfeffer, Kaden (3-0)
L: Klebba, C. (1-1)
Batting:
2B: Hinkle, O. 1 ; Lynch, T. 1
RBI: Lynch, T. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hinkle, O. 1 ; Puder, J. 1
Batting:
HR: James, Cal 1 ; Smith, Sawyer 1 ; Bevacqua, Garrett 1
RBI: Dehne, Noah 2 ; James, Cal 1 ; Smith, Sawyer 3 ; Bevacqua, Garrett 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Dehne, Noah 1 ; James, Cal 2 ; Smith, Sawyer 1 ; Bevacqua, Garrett 1 ; Konkol, Hayden 1 ; Jacobson, Brayden 1
HBP: James, Cal 1
Game Leaders
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
4
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
CI/OF
/ BaseballIF
/ Baseball
C
/ Baseball
IF
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
IF/RHP
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