MARSHALL -- A back-and-forth affair narrowly landed in the favor of the Bemidji State baseball team on Sunday. The Beavers prevailed 10-9 over Southwest Minnesota State in a nail-biter in Marshall.
BSU (4-21, 3-17 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) tallied 17 hits in the game behind six players who produced multi-hit efforts, including three hits apiece from Carter Simon, Sam Kalberer and Isaiah Grancorvitz.
Bemidji State avoided the series sweep by outlasting SMSU’s offense. The Beavers took a 4-1 lead in the second inning behind RBI hits from Michael O’Malley, Simon and Kalberer for the early edge.
The Mustangs came back with the next five runs, scoring one in the fourth and four more in the fifth. But then BSU hung its second four-spot of the day in the sixth inning to regain an 8-6 edge. Grancorvictz scored on a Tom Keohen double, and then Jack Munson, John Perkins and Kalberer all came through with RBI knocks to assume the upper hand.
Southwest Minnesota State came back to tie in the bottom of the sixth, but O’Malley answered with the go-ahead RBI single in the seventh. Noah Boser added an insurance run off a sacrifice fly in the eighth, which proved to be handy because the Mustangs got one back in the bottom half to make it 10-9.
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Travis Carruth entered for the save opportunity in the bottom of the ninth, and he needed just seven pitches to send SMSU down in order and clinch the victory.
Hunter Haggenmiller earned the win from the mound, throwing 1 2/3 innings of relief and allowing two runs off four hits after entering during the fifth.
The Beavers will try for their first winning streak of the season when they visit St. Cloud State for a doubleheader starting at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 21.
Bemidji State 10, SMSU 9
BSU 030 003 110 -- 10-17-1
SMSU 100 142 010 -- 9-13-1
WP: Haggenmiller (1.2 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 K)
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LP: Schroeder (1.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 K)
S: Carruth (2)
