Crookston, Minn. – In need of a solid final day of the regular season, the Northern State University baseball team swept Minnesota Crookston to go 3-1 in the series. With the sweep, the Wolves improve to 21-22 overall and 14-16 in NSIC play, earning themselves a bid to the NSIC Conference Tournament. The Wolves will open the NSIC Tournament on Wednesday from St. Cloud, with full tournament information to be released at a later time.
Game 1
It was a full team offense success for the Wolves in the game one 14-1 defeat of the Golden Eagles. Northern tallied 19 team hits, including nine extra base hits. The Wolves tallied runs in five of the seven innings of play, with their largest total of seven coming in the top of the sixth.
NSU senior
Colton Boucher started his final regular season match-up of his career and threw a complete game for the Wolves. Boucher gave up just one unearned run on four hits. The right hander struck out six in his fifth win of the season.
Jack Schmidt and
Lucas Lorenz led the NSU offense both going 4-for-5 at the plate. Schmidt tallied two runs scored, two RBI, and a homerun, while Lorenz added two runs scored, two RBI, a triple, and two doubles.
Ben Allen also continued a great week at the plate, cashing in with a 3-for-4 outing in the box, with two runs scored, a double, a homerun and four RBI.
The multiple hit games continued with
Tyler Gripentrog,
Mikey Barreneche, and
Chris Gonzales tallying two each.
Matt Stubbs and
Jeff Rideout rounded out the team total with a hit apiece. The Wolves were also solid on defense going errorless through the seven innings of action.
Game 2
The offensive onslaught rolled into the second game of the day, as the Wolves defeated the Golden Eagles 15-2 in seven innings. Northern added 16 hits in the game and recorded their second straight game with errorless defense.
Nick Hoffard added to his solid two week campaign for NSU throwing seven complete innings for the Wolves in his seventh win of the season. The win ties the single season school record set by Boucher a season ago. Hoffard gave up just two runs on seven hits and struck out three.
The Wolves were led offensively by senior
Matt Stubbs going 3-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored, a double, and a walk. A total of five NSU starters record two hits in the game including:
Kolin Kubitz,
Jack Schmidt,
Ben Allen,
Mikey Barreneche, and
Chris Gonzales. Barreneche led the team with three RBI and two doubles, while Kubitz and Gripentrog each tallied a homerun.
Lucas Lorenz and
Jeff Rideout tallied the team's final two hits in the victory. Rideout also notched a team leading three RBI with a double in the top of the seventh.
Northern will now prepare for the NSIC Tournament beginning on Wednesday from St. Cloud. Brackets and tournament information will be released by the NSIC later tonight.
