St. Cloud, Minn. – The Northern State University baseball team came away with a crucial split on the road versus No. 2 St. Cloud State on Saturday. The Wolves fell in a hard fought 4-2 game one, but bounced back to take down the Huskies 12-5 in the night cap. Northern improves to 16-19 overall and 9-13 in league action, and is currently sitting tenth in the NSIC standings. The top eight teams in the regular season standings will advance to the conference tournament at the conclusion of the regular season.
 
Game 1
 
The Wolves had to battle back from a 2-0 deficit in game one, as the Huskies took the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Northern fought with a pair of runs in the fifth and seventh however they were not able to overcome the pair of SCSU runs in the fifth and sixth.
 
Dillon Lee suffered the loss in the game, despite throwing 5.2 innings for the Wolves. Lee gave up just three earned runs on 11 hits, and held a powerful St. Cloud State offense at bay. Nate Zeise entered in relief to complete the sixth and final inning for NSU.
 
Tyler Gripentrog led the team at the plate going 2-for-2 with a run scored and a walk. Ben Allen and Preston Brown each matched Gripentrog's hit total with two on the day as well. Rounding out the team's final nine hits were Jack Schmidt, Mikey Barreneche, and Zach Beatty. Both Gripentrog and Brown tallied a double in the loss.
 
Game 2
 
The Wolves took their first lead of the game in the top of the fourth inning, after going down 1-0 in the second. Jack Schmidt and Matt Stubbs hit back-to-back singles with one out to lead off the NSU rally. The pair came around to score on an error by the St. Cloud shortstop and a groundout to second base by Mikey Barreneche.
 
St. Cloud State quickly answered back with three more runs in the bottom half of the inning to take the 4-2 lead. Northern however was not done, tacking on five runs in both the seventh and the ninth. Tyler Gripentrog singled to tie things up for the Wolves, scoring both Zach Beatty and Kolin Kubitz who had singled and doubled to lead off the inning. Northern took a quick 7-4 lead just three at-bats later, off the bat of Lucas Lorenz. The sophomore smashed his 11^th homerun of the season scoring both Jack Schmidt, who singled, and Tyler Gripentrog.
 
The NSU offense did not look back as they belted out five more hits and five more runs to conclude the game. Starter Cody Vandever held the Wolves in the mix throwing a solid 6.1 innings. The senior gave up just four earned runs and ten hits for his third win of the season. Luke Chevalier entered for yet another solid outing of relief work. The redshirt freshman earned his third save of the season throwing 2.2 scoreless innings. Vandever and Chevalier combined for five strikeouts in the victory.
 
Jack Schmidt and Matt Stubbs led the team, each going 3-for-5 in the game. Schmidt tallied a team leading three runs scored, while Stubbs followed with two runs scored and an RBI. Preston Brown was the final Wolf to record multiple hits, going 2-for-5. Each of the team's nine starters hit in the win with Kolin Kubitz, Tyler Gripentrog, Lucas Lorenz, Ben Allen, Mikey Barreneche, and Zach Beatty recording a hit apiece.
 
The Wolves return to action tomorrow from St. Cloud with a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m. Northern will then cap-off the home season on Wednesday versus U-Mary beginning at 1 p.m. from Fossum Field.