The Upper Iowa baseball team earned a split with the Mavericks of Minnesota State University, Mankato on Saturday to win the weekend series with three wins. The Mavericks claimed the first game 10-4 pulling away in the late innings, but the Peacocks rallied to win the series finale 9-7 fueled by the bat, glove and arm of
Emmett Kulick and strong pitching from
Kolton Gonnerman and
Parker Kray. The win improved UIU's record to 17-24 overall and 15-18 in the NSIC, while Minnesota State moved to 31-14 overall and 26-10 in the conference.
Upper Iowa's season ends with the 3-1 series victory over Minnesota State as the team landed in ninth place in the Northern Sun just behind Northern State, who finished the regular season with a 13-13 mark in NSIC competition. The conference standings are sorted by win percentage due to the wild variance in games played within the conference.
UIU honored their nine seniors between games with parents and close family escorting them onto the field prior to the players' final game at Robertson Woods Field.
Game One: Minnesota State 10 – Upper Iowa 4
The Peacocks fell behind early 3-0 after the top of the second when a pair of errors on the infield led to three unearned runs charged to UIU starter
Brett Fanning.
UIU bounced back with a pair of runs in the bottom of the second when
Riley Braughton doubled to centerfield to score
Tony Salato, who walked, and
Dominic Hillesheim, who was hit by a pitch. A solo homerun to left field in the third inning off the bat of Kulick tied the game at 3-3 and was the first of many highlights for the junior from DePere, Wis.
MSU's Jordan Hart pushed the visitors back out to a two-run advantage, 5-3, with a monster blast off the blue shed behind the wall in right marking the first earned runs allowed in the game by Fanning.
Upper Iowa was able to cut the gap in half in the fifth when Kulick stepped up to the plate on drove in
Hans Alwin, who doubled down the line in left.
The Mavericks got the edge back with a run in the sixth and stranded three Peacocks on the bases in the bottom of the frame as UIU had the tying run at second and the go-ahead at first. MSU put the game out of reach in the seventh when they scored four runs on four hits to run away with a 10-4 victory.
Brett Fanning (1-5) suffered the loss after 6.1 innings on the hill. He allowed eight runs, five earned, on seven hits and a pair of errors, while posting four strikeouts.
Quinn Ahern (5-2) claimed the win for MSU with six innings of work allowing the four runs on five hits and striking out six Peacocks.
Kulick and Braughton each had a pair of hits in the game and two rbi apiece.
Game Two: Upper Iowa 9 – Minnesota State 7
After surrendering two runs in the top of the first inning, Upper Iowa began to chip away at the Maverick lead and eventually chased the MSU starter Nick Belzer in the third inning.
In the bottom of the first inning, Kulick hit a triple to straight away center field missing a homerun by just a few feet.
Jacob Greco followed with his 198
th career hit, a single to left, that plated Kulick and cut the gap in half.
Upper Iowa struck again in the third inning on an rbi-double to the gap in left center by
Tony Salato.
Conner Klostermann then singled through the right side to give the home team a 3-2 lead. After a pitching change, Hillesheim drove in the third run of the inning with a sac fly to left field to put UIU ahead 4-2.
The Peacock bats weren't done as they added another three runs in the fourth inning to increase their lead to 7-2. The big hits in the fourth inning came on a run-scoring single by
Zac Cain, an rbi-single by Salato and a ground out from Klostermann.
The Mavericks scratched the scoreboard in the sixth and seventh innings to cut the lead to 7-4 heading into the eighth inning. While the MSU bats were coming alive, the Peacock offense was being held down by reliever Jon Ludwig, who cruised through three innings of work allowing just one hit.
In the top of the eighth inning, a pair of leadoff walks combined with a two-run double and a sacrifice fly allowed the Mavericks to tie the game at 7-7. Kray came in out of the UIU bullpen and recorded the outs needed to end the threat, but UIU now needed to find an answer for Ludwig in the bottom of the inning.
A.J. Friedrich led off with a walk and a sac bunt allowed the Peacocks to have a runner in scoring position with one out. Kulick stepped to the plate and delivered his second homer of the day; this one to right field to score a pair and give UIU a 9-7 lead.
In the ninth, Kray allowed a leadoff single, but then got the next three outs to end the game for a Peacock victory.
Kray moved to 3-0 with the win in support of
Kolton Gonnerman, who threw 7 innings and allowed four runs on seven hits while striking out six.
Ludwig suffered the hard luck loss to fall to 0-1 for MSU.
In addition to Kulick's big day at the plate, the UIU rightfielder also had two outfield assists, one on a force out at home and one on a double play liner to his glove in right. The junior had three hits in the game, five on the day, with three runs scored and two rbi in the final game.
Cain also had three hits, while Salato added a pair of rbi-singles.
