Baseball Breaks Even in Conference Play

USF Baseball uses grit and late game heroics to remain even in NSIC play.

After starting a rocky 2-7 in the preseason USF has bounced back in the regular season sitting with a 5-5 record against NSIC foes heading into the weekend. With that record USF is currently in seventh in the conference table and fourth in the NSIC south.

The Cougars started their conference schedule on March 19th up in St. Cloud, Minnesota against St. Cloud State. The Cougars started off slow dropping the first two games to the Huskies. The next day the Cougars dug deep to win back to back games off of walk-off hits. A walk-off hit is when a team gets a hit in the bottom of the last inning that scores a run to win the game immediately. The first game it was junior Matthew Minnick providing the heroics hitting a two run shot to right field which granted the Cougars their first conference win of the season. The Cougars weren’t quite done with the dramatics for the day. The second game of the doubleheader saw the Cougars win 7-6 with senior Trevor Crow lining a ball over the shortstop scoring the winning run.

The St. Cloud trip set the Cougars up for a 2-2 record  heading into their next series against University of Minnesota Crookston last weekend here in Sioux Falls. The Cougars, working towards winning an espy (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly Awards), won their third straight game off of a walk-off. It was Minnick to the rescue once again with the walk-off hit. Junior Rob Johnson also hit the first home run at home for the Cougars this season. The Cougars would go back and forth with the Golden Eagles for the rest of the series losing 4-9, winning 6-1, then losing again 0-2. The Cougars remained even with a 4-4 record.

Most recently the Cougars began a six game road trip in Marshall, Minnesota against Southwest Minnesota State on Wednesday. The first game against the Mustangs saw an outstanding pitching effort from sophomore Dan Johnson and junior Mitchell Lyall providing a shutout for the Cougars on the way to a 2-0 victory. The Cougars positive record didn’t last long when the Mustangs came back to win the second game 2-5.

This has set the Cougars up for a four game series this weekend away to Bemidji State up in Bemidji, Minnesota. The Cougars will look to get above even this weekend and move up in the conference standings.

Story by Jeffrey Harman