Wildcats finish of four-game sweep of Southwest

The Wayne State baseball team completed a four-game sweep of Southwest Minnesota State with wins of 15-14 and 10-6 on Saturday in Alexandria, Minn. The games were scheduled to be played in Wayne this weekend but were moved from Wayne to Knute Nelson Field in Alexandria due to rain.
In the opener, Wayne State scored in every inning to win a wild, high-scoring battle.
The Wildcats used bases-loaded walks by Albert Johnson and Tanner Simons to offset two first-inning runs by the Mustangs. In the second, Wayne State scored two but the Mustangs scored six in the top of the third to take an 8-4 advantage.
Wayne State tied it at 8-8 in the bottom of the third, thanks to a three-run homer by Aaron Krier and an RBI single by Brandon Fowler. They made it 10-9 in the fourth thanks to RBI groundouts by Nick McIntee and Alex Kraft.
Southwest retook the lead 11-10 in the fifth, but the Wildcats reclaimed the lead with Simons’ grand slam homer to make it 14-11.
Southwest tied the game with three in the sixth, but Curtis Bussard’s RBI double scored Kreft with what proved to be the winning run as Bussard came on in relief to get the win.
Bussard and Krier each had four hits to lead a 17-hit attack for the Wildcats. Bussard scored three runs and Krier had four RBI’s. Simons had two hits and five RBI’s and Kreft and Fowler each had two hits.
In the nightcap, Wayne State connected on four home runs and got good pitching from Dalton Smith to finish off the sweep.
Krier’s two-run homer in the third gave the Wildcats the lead for good at 3-1. Cody Jenkins and Bodie Cooper hit back-to-back homers in the fourth, and Johnson extended his hitting streak to 21 games with a two-run homer in the fifth. McIntee added a two-run single in the sixth and Chris May’s RBI single in the seventh closed out the scoring.
Krier led a 14-hit effort with four hits and scored four rusn. Johnson was 3-for-5 with three RBI’s and May had two hits and scored two runs. Dalton Smith got the win, striking out 10 in five innings of work.
Wayne State (13-24, 10-12 NSIC) will visit Minnesota State Wednesday for a 1:30 p.m. doubleheader.