Baseball takes majority in Marauders series
Coming off their white-hot sweep in last week’s matchup, Minnesota State once again finds themselves operating on full cylinders. The Mavs took a 2-1 series win against the University of Saint Mary’s over the weekend.
Heading into their scheduled matchup, the Mavs stepped up to the plate against UMary. While their overall team has struggled to gain consistency this year, they are another NSIC team, meaning that every victory over fellow conference rivals is crucial regardless of the record.
Opening their first of Saturday’s doubleheader, the Mavs lacked punch following last week’s game. Right out of the gate, the Marauders launched a homer into right field in the bottom of the first, giving them a 1-0 lead against the Mavs. However, the Mavs didn’t let that lead go unanswered for long as junior outfielder Jackson Hauge knocked an RBI double to give them a 2-1 lead. Unfortunately, the Marauders took control of the game with two single RBIs in the fifth and another single RBI in the sixth to give the Marauders a 5-2 victory over the Mavs.
Entering game two of the doubleheader, it was a back-and-forth affair all game long. A high-scoring affair that saw the Mavs get back in the win column with a 14-6 victory to cap off the day. One of the biggest contributors and noteworthy performances was junior Jackson Hauge. The native of Ramsey, Minnesota has burst onto the scene after seeing limited action in his past two seasons. This season alone he is leading the NSIC in triples with six total. Head Coach Matt Magers has been satisfied with how he has been performing.
“He has been in the program for four years now and has been a guy battling redshirting and injuries. Last year he played a handful of games and had a very good batting average while being around some of the older guys. This year for him, he has been a center point to our offense, and being a guy who has the power certainly has helped benefit us this year,” said Magers.
After finishing up for the night, the Mavs took the field on Sunday afternoon for the series-deciding game. The rest worked as they tallied four runs in the first inning to give them an early lead. While the Marauders responded with a run scored, the Mavs continued to pile on runs, with five scored in the third for a score of 9-2 entering the fourth. From there the Marauders tried catching up but were unable to, following another five runs in the final innings. This resulted in a 14-7 victory for MSU.
Following the team’s performance, Coach Magers thought that they performed well. However, he did also feel that there was a time that he saw a need for improvement and noticed struggles within the group.
“Our goal is always to win two out of three which we did. I did feel we could have won the first game that we lost after we were ahead, but Saint Mary was able to put three runs up on us. So besides that fifth inning in that first game, we played some good baseball and played good defense and pitched well,” said Magers.
Write to Charlie Groebner at Charles.Groebner@mnsu.edu
Header Photo: MSU Men’s Baseball team takes the series after a 14-7 score Sunday, April 2nd against the University of Mary. The Mavericks won 2-1 in the three-game series last weekend. (File)