KIRKSVILLE, Mo. — The Truman State baseball team won one of four games in a home series against Southwest Minnesota State at Bulldog Baseball Park on Feb. 27–28, falling to 5-7 on the season while the Mustangs improved to 6-5.
Game 1 — Southwest Minnesota 5, Truman State 2
Truman State built a 2-1 lead entering the seventh inning before Southwest Minnesota took advantage of a grand slam to secure game one.
The Bulldogs got on the board quickly when Steurer singled up the middle to score Mueth, then Tieman tripled to right center to plate Steurer and make it 2-0. SMSU cut the deficit to 2-1 in the fourth when Connor Davis's sacrifice fly scored Lampert.
The Bulldogs threatened to expand the lead in the sixth but could not push a run across. Southwest Minnesota took control of the game in the seventh on a grand slam by Hammrich that cleared the left field fence and plated three baserunners to complete the 5-2 final.
Isaac Epp started and left the game with the lead , allowing one earned run over six innings. Nick Steurer entered in relief in the seventh, with Ian Junkin finishing up.
Game 2 — Southwest Minnesota 3, Truman State 5
Truman State built a 5-0 lead and held on for a 5-3 victory, picking up an important win behind a strong outing from Caden Carroll.
Truman got on the board in the second inning when Joey Fentress scored on a Gavin Schieffer single to make it 1-0. The Bulldogs extended their lead in the fourth, as Schieffer reached on a fielder's choice to score Tyler Tieman, and Ian Thornton followed with a sacrifice bunt RBI to plate Fentress and push the lead to 3-0. Nick Steurer added an RBI single in the fifth to score Oliver Degenhardt for a 4-0 advantage, and Tyler Towe's groundout in the sixth plated Schieffer to make it 5-0.
Southwest Minnesota made things interesting in the seventh, as Rezny's two-run homer to right center scored Berreth, and Behn singled to score Lampert to pull the Mustangs within 5-3, but Carroll and the bullpen slammed the door. Carroll earned the victory with six innings of one-run ball, striking out six. Ian Junkin and Hayden Holman combined for the final three outs.
Game 3 — Southwest Minnesota 13, Truman State 3
Southwest Minnesota jumped on Truman early in the day two opener, building a big lead and cruising to a 13-3 win.
Charlie Berry homered to left center in the second inning to put Truman on top 1-0, but the Mustangs answered with four runs in the third to take a 4-1 lead. The Bulldogs responded in the bottom of the third when Tyler Tieman's two-run single up the middle scored Oliver Degenhardt and Colin Mueth to cut it to 4-3. That was as close as Truman would get, as Southwest Minnesota pulled away with home runs from Hammrich, Rezny, and Lampert to reach the 13-3 final.
Nick Phillips took the loss, allowing eight runs over 4.2 innings. Alex Wittenauer and Elijah Belden combined to finish the game.
Game 4 — Southwest Minnesota 14, Truman State 3
The Mustangs capped the series with their highest scoring performance, a 14-3 win to take the series victory.
Southwest Minnesota built a 10-0 lead through five innings before Evan Davis singled up the middle in the fifth to score Burke and put Truman on the board. The Bulldogs made it briefly interesting in the sixth when Oliver Degenhardt crushed a solo home run to left field, and Tyler Tieman followed moments later with a home run to right field to bring the score to 11-3. The Mustangs answered with three more runs in the seventh to close it out.
Danny Lindsey took the loss, allowing two earned runs in 2.1 innings. Jake Keane, Hayden Holman, Ian Junkin, Jacob Osborne, Warner Lenahan, and Bryce Balistreri all saw action in relief.
Up Next:
Truman State finished the home series 1-3, with the victory coming in Game 2. Oliver Degenhardt, Tyler Tieman, Gavin Schieffer, Charlie Berry, and Evan Davis provided most of the offensive production for the Bulldogs across the four games. Caden Carroll was the standout on the mound, earning the win in Game 2 with six strong innings of one-run ball. Isaac Epp also had a great pitching performance in game one of the series.
The Bulldogs will look to regroup as conference play approaches. The single game scheduled against Davenport for March 3rd has been canceled due to expected weather, so Truman will head on the road for the start of GLVC play against Quincy on Friday, March 6th.
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