May 9, 2009

Final Stats

The Peacocks picked up another win in the Northern Sun Conference Baseball Tournament tonight in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Upper Iowa, the #5 seed, defeated Southwest Minnesota State, the #4 seed, in the final game of the second round, 8-5. Upper Iowa was able to answer every Southwest Minnesota State run through the middle innings until the Peacocks began to pull ahead. The Peacocks got a fantastic outing from starter Brian Solemsaas, a senior for UIU. With the win, UIU improved to 26-24 overall and will now face the #1 seeded-Wildcats of Wayne State College tomorrow night for a spot in the title game on Sunday.

The Mustangs jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first when Matt Bauer homered down the right field line, but Upper Iowa was quick to answer with three runs in the first. All three runs came with two outs, as Tom Longoni and Brock Spangenberg hit back-to-back singles in front of a three-run homerun down the right field line by Lucas Wilsing.

The teams settled down over the next two innings, but both marked the scoreboard again in the fourth inning. SMSU opened the fourth with back-to-back homeruns including Bauer's second of the game to take a 4-3 lead. The Peacocks were once again quick to answer with two runs in the bottom of the inning. One run came on an Erik Sorensen double down the left field line and the second came when Longoni walked with the bases loaded to put Upper Iowa back up one run, 5-4.

Upper Iowa added a run in the sixth when Kreston Albright singled and moved to second on a balk before Brad Hasenkamp plated the Peacock center fielder with a single and pushed the UIU lead to 6-4.

The Mustangs cut the gap in half with a run in the eighth and trailed, 6-5, as the Peacocks came to the plate in the bottom of the inning. UIU put runners on the corners with one out when Hasenkamp came through with a second rbi-single to score Sorensen. After a walk, Spangenberg earned an rbi as he grounded into a fielder's choice. The two insurance runs gave the Peacocks a three-run cushion, 8-5, with just one inning to play.

Solemsaas was back out in the ninth looking to close out his seventh complete game of the season. The right hander worked the ninth allowing just one hit and earned his sixth win of the season to improve to 6-5. Solemsaas threw nine innings and allowed five runs on ten hits while striking out 7 Mustangs.

At the plate, Kreston Albright went 4-5 and now has seven hits in the NSIC Tournament to lead all NSIC batters. The team combined for 15 hits including two hits each by Hasenkamp, Longoni, Spangenberg, Fox, and Sorensen.

The Peacocks and Wildcats are scheduled to be back on the diamond at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud, Minn. tomorrow at noon. The winner of the game earns a spot in the championship game on Sunday, but the loser still has an opportunity to reach the championship. The loser of tomorrow's WSC-UIU match up will face the winner of the tournament's third elimination game between Minnesota State and Southwest Minnesota State at 7:00 p.m. in the evening.