Baseball | 4/26/2015 7:51:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Wolves split Sunday, but are still clinging to playoff hopes. Northern took game one 8-5, but were unable to rally in game 2 and lost 8-7.

The offense set the tone for game one as Northern took an early 6-2 lead after one inning. Eric O'Bryan and Lucas Lorenz had RBI singles in the third inning to make it 8-2. Crookston capitalized on a few Wolves miscues and scored 3 unearned runs in the final innings to make the final 8-5. Every hitter in the Northern lineup had atleast one hit and ended up with 14 hits total. Phil Sauer upped his record to 2-2 on the season, while Marcus Manderbach got the final out for the save.

Northern started the exact same way as game one, scoring in the first inning. Jack Schmidt had a 2 RBI single scoring Tyler Gripentrog and Lorenz. The Wolves scored in the second and fourth innings to make it a 4-0 lead. Shawn Powers started for NSU but only lasted 4 innings allowing 4 runs, 3 earned. Crookston took the lead 5-4 on a bases loaded fielders choice in the 6th. In the bottom of the 6th, Schmidt doubled in Mark Abrahamson to tie the game at 5. Erick Cervenka was unable to keep the game tied as he walked 5 Crookston batters over 2 innings. Crookston got a bases clearing double making the score 8-5. The Wolves answered again in the 7th with a Jack Schmidt sacrafice fly and Tyler Gripentrog stole home to make it 8-7. In the bottom of the eighth, NSU had the bases loaded and no outs and were unable to score. Riley Shintaffer walked in the ninth, but was unable to score the tying run. Redshirt Freshman Erick Cervenka took his first loss as a member of the Wolves.

Northern State (23-20, 16-14 NSIC) are alone in 7th place with 6 NSIC Conference games remaining. Northern takes to the road Wednesday to take on University of Mary in Bismarck, before returning home for the final regular season series against #2 ranked St. Cloud State. The games for SCSU will be played on Friday and Saturday.