Alexandria Carter/ Winonan
On Saturday and Sunday the Winona State University baseball team played two doubleheaders at home against University of Mary.
After last week’s spilt doubleheaders against Bemidji State, pitcher Josh Nielsen said the Warrior’s hitting is progressing and their pitching is still strong. He said these aspects of the game are still “something we need to build off.”
Prior to the games against Mary, head coach Kyle Poock said, “We are a predominately a fastball hitting team, and Mary throws a lot of breaking balls so we have to adjust on that.”
On Saturday the Warriors won both games in the doubleheaders by scores of 5-1 and 13-3. On Sunday the Warriors split the doubleheader with an 18-7 win in the first game and a 7-5 loss in the second.
Pitcher Chase Blazier won his first game of the season with a 5-1 victory over the Marauders. Blazier finished the game pitching seven innings only giving one earned run on four hits, two walks and four strikeouts.
Jordan Plamann went 3-for-3 with a run scored while Travis Evanson went 1-for-3 with a homer and two RBIs. Michael Hommes also had a multi-hit game going 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored.
The Marauders got on the board early on Saturday, but the Warriors answered back at the bottom of the first. With Hommes on first, Andrew Geislinger hit a double to tie the game at 1-1. Evanson hit a home run deep into right field two batters later to give the Warriors a 3-1 lead.
At the bottom of the fourth with the bases loaded and one out, Plamann scored from a sacrifice fly to right field from Taylor Field to give Winona State the lead 4-1. On the next at-bat with an RBI single Hommes made it a 5-1 lead.
At the top of the seventh Mary had runners on first and second with no outs, but after a double play by Tyler Nehring and a fly out to follow the Warriors secured the win.
In the second game of the day Mary, again, scored in the top of the first, but Winona State tied the game 1-1 when Geislinger scored off an RBI single from Jesus Cazares.
In the bottom of the second inning the Warriors scored eight runs, beginning with Taylor Field hitting a grand slam to right field for the lead 5-1.
Five batters later, Geislinger scored on an RBI single from Plamann to bring the score 6-1.
The next at-bat saw Nehring hit a three-run ball, pushing the Warrior’s lead 9-1.
Nehring smacked his second homer of the day with a hit over the left field fence to give the Warriors a 10-2 lead over the Marauders.
Mary managed a run at the top of the fifth to make it 10-3, but Evanson added another run for the Warriors after a RBI single to bring the score 11-3.
In the bottom of the sixth Winona State scored two more runs after Nehring scored off catcher Nathan Krause, who ended up scoring on a throwing error and pushing the lead 13-3.
In the seventh inning, Hayden Krimmer stuck out all three batters to secure Winona State’s victory.
Krimmer pitched seven innings while giving up three earned runs and posting seven strikeouts.
Nehring went 4-for-4 from the plate with two home runs. Field went 1-for-4 with a homer and four RBIs as well.
In Sunday’s first game Winona State’s Mitch Heid hit a three-run ball in the second to pull the Warriors ahead 3-1. Hommes and Kipp Youngquist followed with scores to bring the lead 5-1.
In the third inning Taylor Field hit a home run to tack on three more runs for the Warriors. Plamann added one of his own in the fourth inning, extending the lead 9-1.
In the fifth inning Winona State scored eight runs. Youngquist started the scoring followed by Cazares’ three-run home run and runs from Heid, Youngquist and Field to bring the score 17-1 heading into the sixth inning.
After Matt Bonestroo came in to relieve Lucas Crimmins, the Marauders cut the lead 17-4. In the sixth inning, but the Warriors were able to add another run at the bottom of the sixth after a homer from Evanson.
At the top of the seventh, Mary added three runs before the game ended with an 18-7 Warriors win.
Field went 3-for-5 with three runs scored. Youngquist had a 4-for-4 game from the plate as Heid went 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Cazares added three RBIs and a run as well.
The Warriors held the Marauders to seven runs on 12 hits with two errors as they posted 18 runs on 17 hits with no errors.
In the final game of the weekend, Mary got on the board first 2-0 in the second inning. Heid was able to cut the early deficit 2-1 in the bottom of the second after scoring off a Field RBI single.
In the third inning Stalsberg gave up a three-run home run to give the Marauders a 5-1 lead over the Warriors. They extended their lead 7-1 in the top of the sixth after a bases loaded walk and a sacrifice fly.
Nathan Krause managed to score in the bottom of the sixth to make it 7-2. Three more scores followed from Cazares, Evanson and Plamann cut the Warrior deficit 7-5, but the Marauders were able to leave with the win.
Stalsberg pitched five innings, giving up five runs on five hits with four walks, and recorded 11 strikeouts.
Winona State (7-13 overall, 5-3 NSIC) plays Southwest Minnesota State in a doubleheader at home on Tuesday before traveling to Crookston, Minn. to take on the University of Minnesota Crookston in four games.
