The red-hot Winona State University Warriors came into Tuesday’s doubleheader showdown with the University of Mary Marauders, riding a five-game winning streak as they looked to extend their recent success.
Unfortunately, Winona State split with the Marauders, dropping the first game 3-9 but bouncing back and claiming the second game 8-7.
The Warriors started things strong as third-year Derek Baumgartner scored on an error by the centerfielder to put the Warriors up 1-0 in the opening frame.
Fast forward to the third inning where the Marauders’ bats came alive and erupted for five runs on six hits of their own, highlighted by a two-run shot by second-year Derek Shoen that carried right over the scoreboard.
Trying to claw their way back from the deficit, second-year Warrior Nick Herbst and third-year Warrior Carter Brinkman knocked in two runs in the fourth.
The Marauders gave second-year Jonathan Draheim some breathing room as they put four more insurance runs on the board in the seventh inning to add to their lead.

The Warriors had no answer for the terrific pitching from U-Mary and were held scoreless in the bottom of the seventh as they fall to a final score of 3-9.
Second-year Bailey Banaszynski took the loss on the afternoon after striking out seven and only walking one and moved to 2-1, while Draheim triumphed victoriously and continued his stellar season moving to 3-0 on the mound for U-Mary.
Second-year Nick Herbst led the Warrior bats going 2-for-3 with an RBI. In the second game, after trading runs back and forth throughout the day, the Warriors rallied in the eighth inning to claim victory and get back in the win column to end the day.
Herbst got it going again for the Warriors right away as he wasted no time blasting a solo home run over the left-center fence putting Winona State up 1-0 in the first inning. U-Mary wanted in on the action and with two outs, second-year Quentin Evers cranked a high fastball to right field knotting the game at 1-1.
The Warriors got it going again in the third with the sun helping out the Warriors on fourth-year Nate Loomis hit to centerfield, which turned into a triple.
Loomis scored a couple of pitches later on a passed ball that squeaked by the catcher.
Baumgartner then took a page out of Loomis’s book and hit a triple of his own to right-center.
Herbst hit a SAC fly to score Baumgartner and fourth-year Tanner Williams drove in fourth-year Sam Kohnle for his lone RBI of the game as their big third inning came to an end.
Second-year Cameron Kramer pitched a solid 6 innings giving up only 7 hits against 28 batters faced but got himself into a pickle in the fifth inning when he had bases juiced with only one out.
Second-year Braxton Inniss doubled to centerfield clearing the bases and driving in three to tie up the ball game at 4-4.
As we came to the eighth inning, Kohnle hit an RBI double to score Baumgartner and give Winona State the lead.
With a Williams walk and runners on first and second, fourth-year Austin Savary came up big with a two-RBI double down the right-field line to give the Warriors a three-run lead going into the
final inning.
The Marauders kept things interesting and had Winona State on the ropes after scoring two runs and bringing the tying run to the plate, but third-year Justin Firpo struck out the final batter and gave the Warriors the win.
Baumgartner talked about pitching being a key to their success over the last few games.
“Our pitching has been awesome the last few weeks,” Baumgartner said. “Our pitchers come in and are throwing strikes and hitting spots.”
First-year Mitchell Mueller walked away with his first win of the season as Firpo picked up his first save of the season.
Kohnle led the Warriors at the plate by going 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.
Herbst and Savary each collected two RBIs of their own. Head Coach Kyle Poock said after the game he likes where they are offensively with getting guys on and scoring them.
“The second game we did much better job offensively getting better at-bats making sure we know what we got to do,” Poock said. “We move them over and get them in scoring position and give teammates chances to knock them in and score runs.”
Winona State moves to 9-6 overall and 6-4 in NSIC play while U-Mary moves to 5-7 overall and 3-4 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) play.
Winona State went on the road to face a tough Northern State team this weekend as they had a double-header on Friday and a single game on Saturday.
Unfortunately, with a combination of great Northern State pitching and the sticks for Winona State going cold, the Warriors dropped three games in a
crushing weekend.
In the first game, Winona State was able to get runners on but struggled to hit them home as they left nine runners on the base paths over the seven innings played.
Herbst was locked in for the Warriors as he led the bats going 3-for-4 scoring once.
Savary was 1-for-3 with an RBI and Baumgartner was 1-for-4 with an RBI as well.
It was a tough go for the Warriors in the second inning as the Wolves tacked on five runs and forced starting pitcher third-year Kyle Gendron (3-2) out of the game after facing just 17 batters.
The Warriors had no answer for the Wolves, 12 runs on 16 hits as they cruised to a 12-1 victory over Winona State.
Following game one, Winona State continued their offensive struggles stranding yet another nine base runners and only scoring one run the whole nine innings courtesy of first-year Austin Beyer’s solo home run in the seventh inning.
Savary (1-1) suffered his first loss of the season as he went six innings allowing 10 hits, six runs, five earned, and striking out
three Wolves.
First-year Max Otto (1-0) of NSU picked up his first win of the season going seven innings strong allowing six hits, one earned run while striking out six Warriors.
Northern State took game
two 6-1.
Herbst, Baumgartner, and Williams led the Warriors with two hits apiece with Herbst going 2-for-5, Baumgartner going 2-for-3 with a walk, and Williams going 2-for-4 on the game.
After dropping two games on Friday, Winona State was determined to escape the weekend with at least one win, but fourth-year Seth Brewer (3-0) of Northern State had other plans as he went seven innings allowing four hits and one earned run while striking out a season-high 10 batters.
Fourth-year Dillon Whittaker (0-2) struck out four Wolves batters but allowed four earned runs on eight hits as NSU completed the weekend sweep beating Winona State 6-1.
Kohnle singled in the first inning for the only RBI of the game to put the Warriors up 1-0 and solidify himself in Winona State Baseball history as he became the 11th player to reach 200 career hits.
Kohnle paced the Warriors going 1-for-3 with an RBI and walk while Savary went 1-for-2 with two walks of his own. Winona State falls to 9-9 overall and NSU improves to 8-7 on the season.
Winona State travels north to take on St. Cloud State in a doubleheader on Tuesday, April 6 as the game got switched due to inclement weather predicted for Wednesday, the original date they were going to play.