(Photo by SCSU Athletics)

The St. Cloud State baseball team played back-to-back days of double headers at US Bank Stadium last week.  That’s right, the home of the Vikings has played host to baseball since its opening a few years ago.  On Tuesday, it was the Wolves of Northern State as the opponent for the Huskies, and on Wednesday, it was Concordia-St. Paul facing the Huskies.

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

GAME 1

SCSU 9, Northern State 0

The Huskies were the designated road team in game one, and they opened the scoring in the top of the third inning on a Josh Hill attempted sacrifice bunt.  John Nett and Tyler Hajjar would cross the plate to put the Huskies up two early.  Drew Bulson would single home Lenny Walker in the top of the fourth, and the Huskies would tally six in the top of the seventh to win by a score of 9 to 0.  Pitching for SCSU in this one was Matt Osterberg. It was his second start of the season, and he could not have asked for a better appearance going the distance in the seven-inning shortened game.  Not only did he pitch a shutout for the Huskies, but he also struck out eight in the process.

GAME 2

SCSU 3, Northern State 1

The Huskies and Wolves went right back at it after the first matchup.  This one would be much closer than the first.  In this low scoring affair, both starting pitchers had zeroes still on the board through four and a half innings, but in the bottom of the first, the Huskies would strike.  Mauro Owens singled Matt Quade home for the game’s first run.  The Northern State deficit would sit at one until they tallied an unearned run off of Shannon Ahern in the top of the eighth. In the bottom of the inning, the Huskies would grab the lead right back from the Wolves off of a two-run home run off the bat of Jake Shusterich.  It was his third bomb of the season.  The home run would prove to be fatal for Northern State as SCSU would come away with a three to one victory.

Wednesday, February 18, 2020

GAME ONE

SCSU 7, Concordia-St. Paul 0

In the first game of the double header, the Huskies relied on crooked numbers on the scoreboard to come away with victory.  SCSU would score four in the bottom of the third inning and three in the bottom of the fifth.  The bottom of the lineup came through for SCSU accounting for four of the seven RBI’s with two going to Drew Bulson, who pinch hit for Josh Sandoval in the third, and Tyler Hajjar getting two RBI’s as well.  Blake Flint pitched a gem in game one for the Huskies. He went six shutout innings while only striking out two.

GAME TWO

Concordia-St. Paul 7, SCSU 6

The Huskies were looking for four wins heading into downtown Minneapolis on Tuesday, and they would have an opportunity to do that in game two with Concordia.  Concordia opened the scoring off of Trevor Koenig in the bottom of the first inning, scoring two runs.  From then on for Koenig, it was utter domination.  He went five innings only allowing those two runs while striking out eight.  Sadly for Koenig, though, the bullpen could not hold up their end of the bargain with Concordia scoring five runs off of the relievers of SCSU including a walk off walk.  On the positive side for SCSU, they scored six runs in the game, including a Drew Bulson three-run home run in the fourth inning.

The Huskies will hit the road over the weekend and into next week in Auburndale, Florida for the Russmat Invitational over Spring Break.  In Florida, they will play seven games in seven days.