Baseball tops Concordia-St.Paul twice for top spot in NSIC

The Minnesota State University, Mankato baseball team extended their win streak to seven games this past Tuesday with a double-header sweep against Concordia-St. Paul. With their wins on Tuesday, the Mavericks have also claimed sole possession of first place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) standings.

Senior pitcher Cam Kline remained perfect on the season as he picked up his fifth win in the Mavericks’ 6-4 victory over the Golden Bears in game one. Kline tallied six strikeouts through six innings pitched and allowed zero runs. 

Sophomore Nathan Culley had an impressive performance on the mound in MSU’s 11-0 win over CSP in game two. The Andover, Minn. native struck out 15 batters through 21 batters-faced while letting up only two hits.

Minnesota State started out strong in the first inning of game one as sophomore infielder Jackson Hauge tallied a three-run home run blast to left center field. The Mavs would extend the lead to 4-0 in the second inning as junior outfielder Ryan Wickman tallied an RBI double to right field. 

MSU piled on two more runs in the third inning when senior infielder Ross Indlecoffer hit an RBI single through the left side. With the MSU lead at 6-0, CSP was able to mount a small comeback effort in the seventh inning. 

Sophomore infielder Bryce Nelson got the Golden Bears on the board in the seventh with an RBI single through the left side. Shortly after, the MSU lead was cut to four as junior pitcher Jack Brown struck CSP’s Justin McGuigan with a pitch while the bases were loaded.

The Golden Bears were able to muster up two more runs in the seventh, but were finished off by the Mavericks in a 6-4 final. Both teams had a short break before returning to the field at 4:15 p.m. for game two of the doubleheader. 

Similarly to game one, the Mavericks opened game two with a homerun, this one coming in the third inning from the bat of sophomore infielder Adam Schneider. Schneider brought the MSU lead to 2-0 in the fourth inning with an RBI single through the left side. 

Senior catcher Ben Livorsi extended the lead to 3-0 in the fifth inning with a solo home run to right field. Minnesota State’s bats started to get hot in the fifth inning as they poured on three more runs to take a 6-0 lead. 

Livorsi kept the bats hot in the sixth inning with a triple of his own, but scored on a throwing error by Concordia’s second-baseman Brayden Roybal. The Mavericks opened the floodgates in the sixth inning, scoring four more runs to take an 11-0 lead. 

With the run rule in effect, Minnesota State beat Concordia 11-0 in seven innings in game two and improved to a 27-5 overall record on the season. The Mavericks will be back in action April 27 as they take on Sioux Falls in an afternoon doubleheader at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Header Photo: Junior Nick Altermatt leads the Mavs’ bats this season with a .405 batting average. Altermatt has also collected a team-leading 51 strikeouts and is 7-0 on the mound. (Dylan Engel/The Reporter)

Write to Karson Buelow at karson.buelow@mnsu.edu.