If the Hamline University baseball team wants to win the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) championship this year, they will have to win their fair share of one run games.
Last weekend, they got a chance to play two of them. Hamline lost their first game to the Big Blue from Millikin University 3–2, then was victorious in a ten-inning affair against UW–Stout, winning 5–4.
In an early 10 a.m. start, Hamline took a 2–1 lead into the bottom of the ninth, looking to close it out for the win. Hamline reliever Dalton Maxwell, on for his third inning of relief, had the Big Blue down to their last out, but a wild pitch tied it and a single by Millikin’s Kolby Koslofski brought home the winning run from third for the walk-off win.
The game was scoreless, with Hamline pitcher sophomore Hans Christensen V keeping the Big Blue off the board, holding Millikin to two hits and a walk through five innings. Millikin was able to parlay an error, a sacrifice bunt and a stolen base into a run, putting them ahead 1–0 after six innings.
Hamline quickly responded with two runs in the seventh to take back the lead 2–1. Sophomore Grant Peltier led off the inning with a single followed by a double from catcher, first-year Alexander Hokenson, but lead runner Peltier was thrown out at the plate trying to tie the score. Junior Stevie Schmitt then singled home Hokenson and the game was knotted at one. Next batter, senior Ethan Smith, singled to center field, and just like that, the Pipers were up 2–1.
The eighth inning was scoreless, which brought us to the unfortunate ending in the ninth, and the Pipers dropped game one of the doubleheader 3–2.
If the Pipers were upset about a walk-off loss in the first game, those feelings were guaranteed to go away as they claimed a 5–4 win against UW–Stout, scoring the winning run on a sacrifice fly by junior Owen Giesen in the bottom of the tenth inning.
Stout jumped out to an early 2–0 lead in the top of the first, but the Pipers were quick to respond, scoring a run of their own in the bottom of the inning on a single by fifth-year Tyler Johnson that brought home first-year Ryan Burley, who led off with a triple in the inning.
The game was back and forth, with the teams tied at four through nine innings. Starting pitcher senior Parker Leipzig carried the team through five innings, and relievers senior Finn Melchior and first-year Cameron Hickox got the team through until the tenth inning heroics won the game for the Pipers.
The weekend was full of contributions from key players. Ethan Smith had two hits in each game; Ryan Burley had three hits and Caden Erickson had two hits against UW–Stout; Tyler Johnson had two hits and two RBIs on the weekend, and pitcher Hans Christensen V struck out six hitters in six innings against Millikin.
With these key contributors, the Pipers hope to carry this momentum into their upcoming spring break trip to Tucson, Arizona, where they will play seven games in eight days between March 15 to March 22.