Upper Iowa and Minnesota Duluth split a pair of non-conference baseball games Tuesday afternoon in Fayette. The Peacocks powered their way to a 14-6 victory in game one, but the Bulldogs salvaged the split by edging their hosts 9-8 in game two. UIU is now 11-11 on the year, while UMD moves to 11-7.
Three Peacocks were unstoppable at the plate combining for 15 hits in the two games.
Jacob Greco led the UIU hitters going 6 for 6 with two walks, a double and a homerun, driving in six runs and scoring four times.
Mitch Moser went 5 for 8 at the plate with a pair of rbi's and four runs scored; the Peacock second baseman reached base seven times thanks to a pair of Duluth errors. Catcher/designated hitter Jacob Stenberg was 4 for 8 with a pair of doubles and a walk; he drove in one runner and scored twice.
Tyus Adkins,
Luis Ravelo, and
Alex George all had a pair of hits in the double header. UIU totaled 10 extra base hits on the day with 6 doubles, a triple and three long balls.
The Peacocks will return to Northern Sun action this coming Friday and Saturday, Apr. 3-4. Upper Iowa will face the Beavers of Minot State University in Minot, N.D. in a four-game series.
Game 1: Upper Iowa 14 – Minnesota Duluth 6 Alex George hit a two-run double in the first inning to plate
Mitch Moser and Jake Greco, who both singled with one out. George came home on an error by the Bulldog first baseman that allowed
Eric Cottrell to reach base and advance to second. A ground out sent Cottrell to third base with two outs and a few batters later the junior took a chance coming home as a throw from the catcher to the pitcher occurred. The return thrown to the plate was not in time and Upper Iowa had a 4-0 lead.
Josh Denisen cut the UIU lead in half with a two-run homer over the left field wall chasing in John Meyer, who walked with one out in the third.
Greco singled up the middle to open the bottom of the third and advanced on a pair of ground outs to second base. Jacob Stenberg delivered Greco to the plate with a single to the right side to put UIU back up by three runs, 5-2.
Moser and Greco continued to do damage in the fourth inning as Upper Iowa added three more runs to their tally. With two outs,
Luis Ravelo walked and then came home when Moser doubled to right center field. Greco then knocked a homerun over the right centerfield wall to put the home team ahead 8-2.
Upper Iowa sent nine batters to the plate and broke the game open in the fifth inning with five runs on six hits. The inning was highlighted by a leadoff double by Cottrell, an rbi-grounder off the bat of
Adam Budron, an rbi rbi-single by
Tyus Adkins, a run-scoring single by Ravelo and an two-run double to right by Greco.
UMD picked up a run on two hits in the sixth, but UIU answered when Budron singled through the right side to plate Jacob Stenberg to put the home team ahead 14-3.
The Bulldogs scored three runs in the seventh on just one hit thanks to four walks and a hit batsmen, but Upper Iowa finally got the out they need to post the 14-6 win.
Shimpei Sato earned the win (1-0) after 6 innings of work. He allowed three runs on six hits while striking out 7 Bulldogs. Spencer Diedrich fell to 0-2 for Duluth after allowing eight runs, six of which were earned, on eight hits over four innings of work. He struck out two and walked one.
Game 2: Minnesota Duluth 9 - Upper Iowa 8 The Bulldogs opened the scoring in game two with five runs on four hits and a Peacock error that allowed the final run to cross the plate.
Upper Iowa got a leadoff single from Stenberg in the bottom of the inning, but were only able to advance him to third with their first two outs.
Tanner Poor came to the plate for his first collegiate at bat and worked a walk to turn the lineup over and extend the inning. Ravelo took advantage and hit a three-run homer, his third long ball this year, to left field to pull the home team within two, 5-3. Moser followed with his third homerun of the season to right. Greco walked and then scored the tying run when
Alex George tripled to right center.
With two outs in the fourth inning, Alex Wojciechowski singled to left field and came all the way around to score on a double to the right field corner off the bat of Kyle Comer. UMD put two runners on and chased Peacock starter
Jake Barron, but
Sawyer Bawek forced a pop up to end the threat.
The Peacocks answered once again in the bottom half of the inning with an unearned run as Moser reached on an error and advanced to second when Greco walked. After moving to third on a fly out, Moser came home on a sacrifice fly by Cottrell to tie the game, 6-6.
After UMD scored two runs on back-to-back doubles in the top of the fifth, Upper Iowa rallied to tie in the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Poor and Ravelo both walked and advanced on a ground out. Both runners came in to score on a single to left field by Greco. The hit was Greco's sixth of the day.
Minnesota Duluth, aided by a failed pickoff attempt, pushed another run across the plate in the top of the sixth thanks to a pair of singles by Kyle Comer and Jimmy Heck.
Anthony Ruden (0-4) suffered the loss as he threw .1 innings, but was assessed the run that put the Bulldogs ahead for good in the sixth. The first five pitchers for UIU all gave up runs to UMD; only the last two hurlers,
Dan Cwiertniak and
Matt Meulemans, worked through their 1.2 innings without allowing a score. Starter
Jake Barron allowed six runs, five earned, on 6 hits while striking out two batters, while
Sawyer Bawek and
Matt Banks each allowed a run.
Jonny Houston won the decision (1-0) for UMD with .2 innings to close out the fifth although the Peacocks tied the game with him on the mound. The winning run came when he was the pitcher of record. Wes Mleziva then took the ball for the Bulldogs and earned his third save of the season with 2 innings of work; he shutout the Peacocks and didn't allow a hit while striking out two.
