Max Steigauf / Sports Director / @MSteigauf

Baseball is back! St. Cloud State’s Baseball team got their season underway in Joplin, Misssouri over the weekend.

The Huskies faced the Southwest Baptist Bearcats in game one. It wouldn’t take long for St. Cloud to get on the board. John Nett lead off the season with a homerun giving the Huskies an early 1-0 lead. After that Riley Ahern would take control of the game. Ahern would twirl a dazzling performance racking up nine strikeouts in a five-inning outing while not giving up a single run. In the fifth the Huskies would also add two unearned runs after hits from Sam Riola and Sawyer Smith. The Huskies would run rule the Bearcats thanks to a 14 run sixth inning giving St. Cloud their first win of the season 17-0.

Game two the Huskies didn’t have as much offense. Sophomore, Ethan Lanthier, started the game giving the Huskies five innings striking out six but gave up two runs on three hits. The Missouri Sothern Lions’ Pitcher Cole Woods pitched six innings striking out nine, and only allowing five baserunners. The Huskies would finally breakthrough in the ninth inning, but it wouldn’t be enough to beat the Lions. St. Cloud dropped their first game of the season 2-1.

The Huskies would face the Bearcats again for their third game of the weekend. St. Cloud would stumble out of the gate with pitchers Sawyer Smith and Kieran Schmitz gave up three combined runs in the first inning. St. Cloud would get two runs back in the bottom of the first when catcher, Drew Bulson, doubled scoring John Net and Sam Riola. The Huskies would take the lead in the second inning after they added another two runs to make the score 4-3. St. Cloud would once again breakout against the bearcats with an eight run fourth inning punctuated by John Nett’s second homerun of the season. the Huskies would cruise to another victory over the Bearcats 15-5.

In their final game of the weekend St. Cloud faced the Missouri Southern Lions once again. The Huskies would jump out to a 3-0 lead, but the lions would answer back scoring six runs in the middle innings. The Huskies counter punched with six runs of their own in the eighth inning taking the lead back 9-6. The Lions would surge back in the ninth scoring two runs before Henry Kusiak would homer, walking off the Huskies in their final game in Missouri.

Riley Ahern and John Nett both earned NSIC player of the Week awards for their performances in the opening week series. The Huskies will play Arkansas Monticello later this week in Arkansas before they head to Fort Lauderdale, Florida for a series against Nova Southeastern.