MOORHEAD, Minn. – The Gustavus baseball team came back with a 5-2 victory during game two after dropping game one 3-1 in a Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader at Concordia College Saturday afternoon.
Fifth-inning woes allowed the Cobbers to plate two runs off of three hits to claim a 3-1 lead in which they held on to for the final two innings.
The Gusties answered the home team’s one-run first inning with a run of their own in the fourth inning as Nathan Lindberg (Fy., Bloomington, Minn.) doubled, one of his two hits, and was knocked in with a Brock Peterson (Sr., Cannon Falls, Minn.) RBI single up the middle.
Gustavus was limited to just two hits in the next three innings en route to dropping game one. Brice Panning (So., Hamburg, Minn.) took the loss on the hill for the Black and Gold, despite tossing a solid six innings, allowing six Cobber hits.
The Gusties duplicated their hit total from game one, but produced more timely hitting while two-run seventh sealed the three-run victory to salvage a series split.
A hot start gave the visitors a 3-0 advantage through the third frame. Gustavus tallied a pair of runs with a couple hits in the first inning. As the bases were loaded after singles from Ryan Moriarty (Jr., Le Sueur, Minn.) and Carter Clemensen (Fy., Cologne, Minn.) along with a Cole Pengilly (Fy., Le Sueur, Minn.) base on balls, Nolan Lepel (Sr., Plato, Minn.) was hit by a pitch to score Moriarty. An RBI groundout from Panning then scored Clemensen to give the Gusties a 2-0 lead.
Lepel his second RBI of the game in the third with a single, scoring Moriarty who led off the inning with his second hit of the game.
The Cobbers came back with runs in the fourth and sixth innings to come within one run at 3-2, but a two-run seventh gave Casey Lewandoski (Sr., Fairbanks, Alaska) a three-run cushion to pitch comfortably and earn his third save of the season in the bottom half.
An RBI fielder’s choice from Pengilly and sacrifice fly from Panning gave the Gusties the 5-2 lead in the top half of the seventh.
Sam Archer (Jr., Zimmerman, Minn.) earned his fourth win of the season on the mound, completing six innings while surrendering just four Cobbers hits.
Moriarty (2-3, 2 R), Clemensen (2-2, 2 R), Lepel (1-2, 2 RBI), and Panning (0-2, 2 RBI) paced the Black and Gold offense.
Next Up
The Gusties, now 12-13 overall and 4-6 during conference play, return to Gustie Baseball Field tomorrow afternoon, hosting Macalester College at 1 p.m. during senior day.