Maverick baseball dominates Mustangs
The Minnesota State Mavericks extended their win streak to 15-straight games after a weekend sweep of the Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs.
The weekend started off with a 2-0 win Saturday afternoon. Brody Rodning picked up his fourth win of 2017, going all seven-innings allowing only three hits while retiring nine Mustangs. Jordan Hart and Eric Peterson were the two to get the Mavericks on the board with a homer in the fourth and a fly out to right respectively. The win was Rodning’s third consecutive seven-inning shutout win.
In the second game of the weekend series, junior Cody O’Brien picked up his first win with a 2-1 final score. O’Brien closed out the last hitless inning to give the Mavericks the win. Nick Belzer started the first six innings, allowing only three hits while striking out 11 batters. Southwest Minnesota State started the scoring with an RBI single in the first. Minnesota State put up the two runs off the bat of Josh Wenzel. Wenzel hit a walk off home run in the eleventh after hitting an RBI single in the third to score Cody Ulfers.
The Mavericks started the Sunday series with a 24-3 win. Ricky Digrugilliers notched his third win of the season starting the first five innings allowing four hits while striking out two. The Mavericks had an explosive fifth inning scoring 10 of their 24 runs and eight in the sixth. Ryan Moffett, Dylan Dresel and Noah Bluth each picked up a homerun while Tommy McDonald and Dresel totaled four runs in the contest. Eric Peterson, Moffett, Wenzel, Luke Waldek and Teddy Petersen all put up two runs each while McDonald, Walsh, Petersen and Bluth each earned a double. With the run, Peterson moved into the first-place spot for most career runs with 183. Christian Howell and Austin Franzen each pitched a scoreless inning in relief to close out the game. Freshman McDonald totaled four runs on three hits and four RBI’s in his four at-bats.
Minnesota State closed out the series with a 7-1 win over the Mustangs Sunday afternoon. Junior Quinn Ahern earned his second win, throwing the first six innings allowing five hits while striking out seven. Dresel got the scoring started with a single to left to score Peterson. They earned two more runs in the third before Hunter Walsh hit a homerun to left in the sixth. The Mustangs ended the Mavericks chance of a shutout with a double down the left-field line to score one in the eighth. Minnesota State answered with three more runs in the top of the ninth. Peterson totaled two runs on two hits in three at bats while Dresel and Waldek each put up two RBI.
The Mavericks play the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. at the MSU Baseball Complex in Mankato, before heading to Minot, North Dakota this weekend.