Senior Bobby St. Pierre fired a complete game five-hitter with nine strikeouts to lead Wayne State College in a 4-1 win over St. Cloud State in the opener of a four-game Northern Sun Conference baseball series played Saturday afternoon at the Chapman Complex.
St. Pierre took a shutout into the seventh inning in the opener and finished with a complete game five-hitter to help the Wildcats snap a nine-game losing skid to St. Cloud State dating back to the 2012 season.
The game was scoreless until the fourth when Cody Castro’s RBI single scored Kyle Thompson for a 1-0 Wildcat advantage. They extended the lead to 3-0 in the fifth when Bodie Cooper singled and scored on a St. Cloud State fielding error and Thompson crossed the plate on a David Janes single.
The Wildcats closed scoring with another run in the sixth when Cooper’s RBI single brought home Cody Jenkins, who was hit by a pitch. The Huskies avoided the shutout in the seventh using a walk, hit batter and one hit to make the final 4-1.
Wayne State finished with 10 hits in the game. Janes was 3-for-3 with an RBI while Castro was 2-for-3 with an RBI. Cooper also had two singles to go with an RBI and run scored. Thompson singled and scored two runs while Tandon Dorn and Jenkins each had one hit.
St. Pierre improved to 2-2 on the season with the complete game win. He allowed just one run on five hits with nine strikeouts and one walk.
The second game saw St. Cloud State take a 3-0 lead in the first inning as the Wildcats never recovered in suffering a 6-1 loss.
The Huskies scored three in the first followed by single runs in the third, fourth and sixth innings. Wayne State avoided a shutout in the eighth inning when Jake Lemar delivered an RBI single to score Thompson.
Dorn, Thompson and Janes each had two singles for WSC while Jenkins, Lemar and Jackson Petersen each singled. Hunter Wienhoff (1-3) suffered the loss, giving up five runs on five hits in five innings of work. Tegan Nissen pitched three innings of relief and allowed one run on four hits with two strikeouts while Spencer Johnson worked a perfect ninth inning.
Wayne State (7-10, 2-4 NSIC) will conclude their four-game series with the Huskies with another doubleheader Sunday starting at 12 p.m.
