MW BASEBALL: MW splits doubleheader

WORTHINGTON — The Minnesota West baseball team picked up its second win of the season in its doubleheader against Anoka-Ramsey Sunday in Worthington.

After losing the first game 6-4 to the Golden Rams, the Bluejays won the second game of the doubleheader 8-5.

With the split, Minnesota West improved to 2-17 on the season.

“I hope this win leads to a few more,” MW coach Jeff Linder said. “They earned this victory. It was nice to see one finally go their way. I hope this win goes a long way for us.”

With the score 1-0 in favor of the Golden Rams entering the bottom of the second inning in the second game, Minnesota West strung together some runs to take their first lead of the game.

With one out in the second, Jacob Laverman hit a single to left field. Nate Bierman followed up with a walk, putting runners on first and second.

A wild pitch advanced both runners before Shane Schoborg hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Laverman from third to tie the game. Joey Kinley followed up with an RBI-single to give the Bluejays a 2-1 lead at the end of the inning.

After a scoreless third inning, Minnesota West put together a huge fourth inning to take a convincing lead.

Kinley hit a two-out two-run home run to left field to make the score 4-1. Later, Eric Wieneke hit a two-RBI double to left field and Stuart Rogers scored on the next play when the Anoka-Ramsey pitcher threw a wild pitch, making the score 7-1 after the fourth inning.

The Golden Rams added three runs in the fifth inning and another in the sixth, closing the gap to 7-5 late in the game. But their efforts weren’t enough.

Alex Peterson hit a solo blast to right-center field to give the Bluejays an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth, and that was all it took for the home team. After holding Anoka-Ramsey in the top of the seventh, Minnesota West took the game 8-5.

“We had solid hitting today,” Linder said. “We left a few runners in scoring position, but overall I thought we played a good game. That’s what wins ballgames, timely hitting and not making too many mistakes. And that’s what we managed to do today.”

Weineke started the second game for the Bluejays, tossing 4 2/3 innings. Mitch Jensen pitched the rest of the game in relief.

Although the Bluejays lost the first game of the doubleheader, it was a hard-fought contest.

Minnesota West got on the board right away when Rogers hit an RBI-double.

After giving up two runs in the third inning to the Golden Rams, the Bluejays responded in the bottom of the inning to take their final lead of the game.

The Bluejays had RBIs from Jensen, Adam Munkel and Munkel later scored when Laverman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. By the end of the inning, Minnesota West was leading 4-2.

But the Golden Rams scored four unanswered runs to make the score 6-4, giving the Bluejays their 17th loss of the season.

“We’ve been right there in so many games,” Linder said. “We’ve been playing in close games all season long and we’ve just been having trouble closing out games. We couldn’t take the first game, but it was nice to finally take one in the next game.”

Munkel pitched the first game for the Bluejays. He tossed a complete game, striking out 12, walking six, giving up 10 hits and hitting one batter.

Minnesota West’s next game is a doubleheader at home Tuesday against Riverland.

And with the way the baseball team played this weekend, the Bluejays can only hope that this means some of their luck is about to turn around.

“I’m real happy with how we did today,” Linder said. “We’ve been fighting all year to get the results we got today. I’m proud of the boys. They earned this a long time ago and its nice to have finally gotten over that hump.”

Game 1 R H E

AR 002 021 1 — 6 10 0

MW 103 000 0 — 4 11 0

Game 2 R H E

AR 010 031 0 — 5 9 1

MW 020 501 X — 8 8 1

Daily Globe Sports Reporter Jocelyn Syrstad can be reached at 376-7335.

Tags: minnesota west sports, sports, baseball