Spencer Ellingson / Winonan

Snow may still be on the ground, but this hasn’t stopped the Winona State University baseball team from starting their season. The Warriors dropped two of its opening games and won one against Southwest Baptist College over the weekend in Bolivar, Mo.

Winona State lost the first game 9-3, and won the nightcap 9-4 on Friday before dropping the third game 7-6 on Saturday.

Head Coach Kyle Poock said the games were a learning process for the team.

“We got to play some games, did some things well,” Poock said. “Found out some things we need to get better at.”

The Warriors were down early in their first game of the season Friday afternoon, where the difference in the game was two four-run innings by the Bearcats.

Southwest Baptist recorded four earned runs on sophomore pitcher Mitchell Stalsberg before tallying another run in the third inning to give the Beavers a 5-0 lead.

Winona State got on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth with a trio of runs. Senior pitcher Mitch Voter connected on a RBI double to bring in senior infielder Tyler Nehring. Sophomore infielder Mitchell Heid chipped in a sacrifice fly and senior outfielder Ryan Nyhagen had a groundout for an RBI to cut the deficit 5-3. Southwest Baptist answered with another four-run inning to put the game away.

Poock said leaving a total of seven players on base in the game hurt the team the most.

“We gave up too many free bases,” Poock said. “We gave up too many walks and a couple wild pitches was the difference.”

After only racking up nine hits and striking out eight times, the Warriors responded with a 9-4 win in the second game of the doubleheader.

Southwest Baptist recorded a pair of runs in the second inning on a two-run home run off junior pitcher Hayden Krimmer and increased the lead to 3-0 in the third inning. The Warriors got on the scoreboard with back-to-back singles by Nehring and junior infielder Jesus Cazares that led to a three-run homer by sophomore Paul Mutch – his first career home run – to knot the game 3-3.

They were able to put up at least one run for the next five innings, including an RBI double by Nehring in the fifth and a two-run shot by sophomore catcher Taylor Field in the sixth inning to take a 6-3 lead.

Sophomore outfielder Joe Kubera had the Warriors solo triple in the top of the eighth inning, gaining two RBIs on the play.

Nehring said it was nice to get players like Kubera back from injuries this weekend.

“It was good for them to get back in the swing of things,” Nehring said.

The Warriors closed out the series with a 7-6 loss on Saturday afternoon.

Winona State got on the scoreboard early as Cazares recorded an RBI single and Nehring smacked a two-run shot in the third inning to give the Warriors a 3-0 advantage.

The Bearcats responded with three runs of their own in the fifth inning, but the Warriors scored two runs in the top of the sixth to take a 5-3 lead.

Southwest Baptist tied the game again with a pair of runs after a wild pitch and an unearned run on a single.

Sophomore Kipp Youngquist brought in a run on a double in the top of the seventh gave the Warriors the lead once more but a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly put the Bearcats ahead en route to the 7-6 win.

Poock said he was disappointed with the result of the game.

“We let a game slip away that we thought we had,” Poock said. “We really thought we should have won that one.”

Winona State (1-2) will head back down to Missouri to play four games against Maryville University, Grand Valley State University and two games against Drury University.