The Northern State baseball team secured its first conference win last week in the series opener against the University of Sioux Falls.
In the first game from Fossum Field, Carson Zimmel pitched a seven-inning shutout as the Wolves put away the Cougars 6-0. It was a scoreless game until the fifth inning, when Northern produced all six of its runs.
Dylan Soulek scored on an error by the catcher, which was followed up by a single from Brennan Phillips bringing in AJ Mendez. Another run came on a sac fly from Dillon Castellanos scoring Michael Benevides. Jack Weidner singled to right field, scoring Phillips, before Nick Ochoa and Nick Friedges both scored on an error by the shortstop. Carson Zimmel struck out seven giving up only three hits.
The Wolves dropped the second game of the day 11-3. The Cougars jumped out to a 3-0 lead, before NSU responded on a single by Phillips scoring Jordan Hull in the fifth. USF plated three more runs in the top of the sixth, and Northern got back on the board with a fielder’s choice scoring Ochoa. USF tacked on five more runs in the final two innings, with Northern’s final run coming from Jack Weidner, who scored on a Soulek double.
On the second day of the series, the Wolves dropped games by margins of 2-1 and 11-5. In the first game, USF’s two runs came in the second inning. Northern didn’t get on the scoreboard until the final inning when Casey Vining scored on a fielder’s choice.
In the final game of the series Sioux Falls scored in the top of the first, which the Wolves matched as Phillips scored on a Weidner single. The Cougars took control after that as they scored seven unanswered runs. NSU cut into the deficit when Phillips doubled scoring Kyle Konechne. Friedges cut the Cougar lead to four with a two-run home run bringing in Phillips, but Sioux Falls answered back with two more runs. NSU’s final run came from Phillips, who scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh.
Wolves’ softball hit the road to take on Concordia-St. Paul and Winona State. The Wolves dropped a pair of games to the Golden Bears 2-1 and 10-1 in five innings. The lone Wolves’ run in the first game came on a two-strike home run from Aune Boben in the first at bat of the contest, but CSP walked it off in the seventh inning.
In game two, the Wolves struck first again, this time on a single from Tevan Bryant scoring Eden Ford. The Golden Bears scored six runs in the second inning on the way to a five-inning victory.
The Wolves lost 7-2 and 16-1 to Winona. The Wolves had four errors, but only allowed one unearned run in the first game. Northern’s two runs came from Eden Ford who drove in Brooke Carlson in the fifth, and Madi Jones who brought in Avarie Eagle in the seventh.
In their final road game, the Wolves gave up 12 unearned runs on seven hits. Emma Owens accounted for the only Northern run driving in Courtney Hennen on a single.
The Wolves then hit the road to take on Minot State, splitting the series this past Tuesday. They lost game one 4-3 and won the second contest 7-6. In the loss, Tevan Bryant sent one over the fence to put the Wolves on the board first. Minot tied the score, but Eagle regained the lead with the second home run of the game in the sixth inning. Minot responded with three runs of in the bottom half of the frame. The Wolves got one run back on a double from Eden Ford scoring Henning, but left Ford, the tying run, on third.
In the 7-6 win, it was Minot which scored first, plating four runs in the first inning. The Wolves tied the score in the third on a pair of two-run home runs: one from Boben, and the other from Jones. Minot answered in the bottom half of the inning regaining the lead, before Owens tied the score in the fourth inning with a solo bomb. Minot once again regained the lead in the bottom of the fourth, and held it until the sixth inning, when Owens hit her second home run, this time a two-run blast. The Wolves then held off the Beavers to secure their second conference win.
Coming up this week, the Northern State Track and Field teams are back in action in Vermillion for the USD Early Bird competition taking place on Friday and Saturday. Wolves baseball will hit the road to take on St. Cloud State for a four-game series, Friday through Sunday.
Wolves softball will host Wayne State in a doubleheader on Saturday with games at 1 and 3 p.m. for their annual Mental Health Awareness games. They will continue their homestand against the University of Sioux Falls on Sunday with games at noon and 2 p.m. for Student Day.
On Wednesday, both softball and baseball will take on UMary in doubleheaders. The softball team will travel to Bismark, N.D. for games at 1 and 3 p.m., with the baseball squad hosting the Marauders at 1:30 and 3:30 p.m.
