Trailing 3-1 at the top of the eighth inning, the Southwest Minnesota State baseball team scored five runs in the eighth to pull away from Concordia-St. Paul for a 6-5 victory Tuesday in Tucson, Ariz.
The Mustangs' rally began after Ben Korger reached base on an fielding error. With two outs, Kyle Young hit an RBI single, and at the next at-bat, Tyler Flattum drilled an RBI double to give SMSU the lead.
"That was a timely hit by Tyler," SMSU head coach Paul Blanchard said. "With two strikes, two outs, he fouled off a pitch and delievered for us. That sparked us quite a bit."
Jeff Watson would follow that up with a pinch-hit two-run double, and Doug Mead finished the rally with an RBI single.
The Golden Bears mounted a small rally in the bottom of the ninth inning before Derek Skovbroten forced C-SP into a groundout to end the game in favor of the Mustangs.
"We got good pitching with (Jeremy) Schmidt going four innings," Blanchard said. "Derek Skovbroten came in and didn't walk anybody. ... Our pitching able to keep us in it."
SMSU finished with eight hits, with Flattum and Korger leading the team with two hits each. On the mound, Schmidt struck out three in six innings.
"It was a big win, considering Concordia beat us twice already down here," Blanchard said. "It's a nice region win for us."
At 3 p.m. today, the Mustangs take on William Penn (Iowa).
| SMSU | 000 010 050—6 8 4 |
| CSP | 100 011 002—5 12 3 |
| SMSU-Jeremy Schmidt, Derek Skovbroten (7); CSP-Adam Kramer, Griff Kilber (8). WP-Skovbroten. LP-Kramer. 2B: SMSU-Tyler Flattum, Jeff Watson; CSP-Logan Bouts, Kris Long. LOB: SMSU 5; CSP-10. |