St. Cloud State University

Groundhog's Day is schedule for tomorrow, but the first true sign of springs pending arrival was the season opener for St. Cloud State University baseball on Sunday, Feb. 1, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.  The Huskies (1-1) kicked off the season with a 4-3 victory and a 1-0 loss to Midland Lutheran indoors at the Metrodome.

 

The Huskies charged to a 1-0 lead in the first inning, and then pushed their lead to 2-0 with another run in the second inning.  In the top of the fifth inning, Midland Lutheran broke the shutout with a run to make it 2-1.  SCSU charted the game winning runs in the bottom of the sixth inning with two runs.  The runs were needed as Midland Lutheran came back in the top of the seventh inning with two runs, but it wasn't enough to top the Huskies.

 

David Deminsky was the pitcher of record, as the Huskies also got solid pitching efforts by Chris Koenig, Logan Birr and Matt Swanson.  Tim Radmacher added a save for the Huskies to finish the game.  SCSU tallied eight strikeouts in the game.  Joey Benke was three-of-three at the plate for the Huskies, and Joe Kroc was 1-of-2  with two RBIs in the contest.

 

In game two, Midland Lutheran broke a 0-0 tie in bottom of the eighth inning with a two-out, bases loaded walk.  In that final inning, SCSU walked the first two batters and then Midland Lutheran sacrifice bunted to put runners at second and third.  SCSU walked the next batter to load the bases.  Midland Lutheran's next hitter popped up, before a two-out walk ended the game.

 

Pat DeLaHunt, Tim Scott, Bryan Koval and Radmacher combined for seven shutout innings with seven strikeouts.  Josh Boyer suffered the loss for SCSU in relief.  Mic Johnson was 1-of-3 in the game with a double, while Nate Hammes, Kroc and NAte Johnson all had one hit in the game.  

 

"We did more good things than bad things, but unfortunatly the few bad things in the second game really cost us," SCSU coach Pat Dolan said, who begins his second year with the Huskies in 2009.  "To only give up 4 runs and strike out 15 in 14 innings, while we used 10 pitchers is definetely something to build on.  But, obviously, not scoring in game two was frustrating.  Their starting pitcher really had us off balance.  The other positive is only making one error in two games.  Pitching and defense are usually ahead of the offense this time of the year, and it just shows we have a lot of hard work to put in offensively."

 

The Huskies will return to the Metrodome on Feb. 7-8 for a pair of game against UW-Parkside.