Alexandria Carter/ Winonan

The Winona State University baseball team split a doubleheader at home against Southwest Minnesota State University on Tuesday, March 31 before snagging three wins against the University of Minnesota Crookston on Friday and Saturday.

Starting with Southwest Minnesota State, the Warriors won the first game of the doubleheader 10-8, but fell 7-10 in the second after the Mustangs scored seven runs in the top of the ninth inning.

Head coach Kyle Poock said, “Game two we let slip away and didn’t get the key hits to score runners when we had them in position.”

Pitcher Jay Voter pitched five innings in the first game, giving up four runs, four walks and seven strikeouts. Mitch Voter picked up his second save of the season. Travis Evanson went 4-for-4 with five RBIs and three runs scored.

In the second game Will Lundquist picked up the loss and gave up five runs, four earned on 10 hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Taylor Field went 3-for-4 with two runs scored. Heid went 2-for-4 with a homer, an RBI and a run scored.

“Against Southwest we played very good baseball all around,” Lundquist said. “In every aspect of the game we showed how good we can be. Hopefully we can keep it rolling through out the year.”

On Friday the Warrior split the doubleheader against Minnesota Crookston. Winona State won the first game 12-1 before falling 4-2 in the second.

In the first game, the Golden Eagles tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the second inning. The score remained the same until the top of the fifth when Jesus Cazares smashed a three-run homer.

With bases loaded, Nathan Krause scored Evanson. Kipp Youngquist added two runs on a RBI single. Later in the inning Field scored on a wild pitch. Evanson added another RBI single to extend the Warriors lead 10-1, and a score from Tyler Nehring and Mitch Heid ended the game 12-1.

Chase Blazier pitched seven innings and earned his second win of the season, only giving up one unearned run on nine hits with no walks and striking out four.

Cazares went 2-for-3 with a homer including three RBIs and scored two runs while drawing two walks. Evanson went 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored.

In the second game, Minnesota Crookston took the lead first at the bottom of the second. The next inning saw three more runs from the Golden Eagles.

At the top of the sixth with the bases loaded and one out, Heid knocked a single that scored Cazares and Plamann. Despite the two runs, Winona State came up short with an end score of 4-2.

Hayden Krimmer gave up four runs with one earned run on four hits, two walks and two strikeouts taking the loss for the Warriors. Scott Freiburger allowed one hit with no walks and six strikeouts.

Heid went 1-for-3 with two RBIs. Plamann also went 2-for-3 with a run scored. Cazares went 2-for-4 with a run scored.

On Saturday the Warriors won both games in the doubleheader against Minnesota Crookston by scores of 4-3 and 9-2.

In Saturday’s first game, the Warriors got the lead in the second inning. Plamann scored on a fielder’s choice ground out giving Winona State a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the third the Golden Eagles tied it up at 1, but Youngquist scored on a RBI double from Geislinger at the top of the fifth. Nehring also added an RBI single to extend the lead to 3-1.

In the bottom of the fifth the Golden Eagles tied the game once again with a two run homer. Both teams remained scoreless for the final two innings, and the game would go to extra innings.

In top of the eighth inning, Nehring hit a home run giving the Warriors the lead.

Mitch Voter closed the game with back-to-back strikeouts giving the Warriors the win.

Nehring went 3-for-4 with a homer, two RBIs and a run scored. Mitch Heid also went 3-for-4.

Lucas Crimmins pitched six innings, only giving up three earned runs on six hits with no walks and six strikeouts in a no-decision. Voter, after pitching two scoreless innings, gave up just two hits while striking out three, picking up his first victory in relief.

In the final game of the weekend, Crookston got on the board scoring at the bottom of the first.

In the fourth inning Nehring scored on a throwing error by the right fielder to tie the game at 1-1.

To take the lead, Cazares scored on a Plamann RBI single. Warriors added another run on a RBI groundout by Heid giving the Warriors a 3-1 lead.

The Warriors extended their lead in the sixth inning by adding six runs from Evanson, Voter, Field, Youngquist, Geislinger and Nehring.

At the bottom of the sixth the Golden Eagles added one run, and the Warriors came away with a 9-2 win.

Stalsberg pitched seven innings only giving up two earned runs on five hits with two walks and 11 strikeouts to win his first game of the season.

Nehring went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored.

Poock said, “It was a good weekend winning three of four games. Offensively we really started to put together good at bats and had good starting pitching.”

Winona State (11-15 overall, 9-5 NSIC) plays a doubleheader against Wayne State on Wednesday at home before traveling to Duluth, Minnesota to compete in two doubleheaders over the weekend.