Winona State Upsets #1 Lynn University 8-4

Winona State (2-2) headed to Florida this week with a huge obstacle in their way.  Their first 2 games were scheduled against the #1 ranked college baseball team in Division 2 baseball, Lynn University (13-2).  The Lynn Fighting Knights had only lost 1 time in their first 13 contests and had only given up 9 runs in their last 5 games played.

Winona took an early 1-0 lead in the 2nd inning with an RBI from catcher Jamie Soyk.  Lynn battled back to take the lead by the score of 4-1 with a run in the 3rd to tie it and 3 in the 6th inning.  Then Lynn made a decision to change pitchers and take out their starter, Tommy Kahnle who had given up only 1 run and struck out 10 in 6 innings pitched. 

That change facilitated the Warriors to have a change of luck at the plate and they roared back for 4 runs in the 7th inning and then 3 more in the 8th to take an 8-4 lead.  The Winona State bats exploded in those 2 innings for 9 hits.  The Warriors relief pitching duo of Kyle Hanken and Kodey Simon pitched the final 3 innings giving up only 1 hit and striking out 3 to get the win and save respectively. 

Offensive stars for Winona included Anthony Mueller (CF) with 3 hits and Ronnie Olson (2B), John Magee (DH) and Jamie Soyk (C) with 2 hits each.

These same 2 teams will face off again tomorrow at 11am eastern in Boca Raton, FL.  Lynn Recap   Winona State – Lynn Box Score

February Baseball Finally Ending

The end of February is finally here and the plight of playing early season, outdoor games continues for Northern Sun baseball teams.

• Minnesota State (2-2) traveled all the way to Georgia in order to avoid the cold and cancellations.  Unfortunately, the weather doesn’t always come in the form of cold and snow as their double header against West Georgia University (5-11) was canceled yesterday due to rain.  They will try to get in a twin bill today before coming home.  They did get in 2 games on Thursday with a dramatic split as the Mavericks lost game 1, 10-6 only to come back in the 2nd and win 22-1.  Minnesota state got 22 hits to go along with the 22 runs and had an excellent pitching performance by starter, Patrick Lenton, who went 6 innings giving up just 4 hits and a lone tally – Minnesota State Recap
• Edit – No sooner did I post this than I saw a Twitter update from Minnesota State saying today’s games are canceled too and they are coming home.  Kinda crappy to drive all the way to Georgia for 5 games and only get to play 2 of them.
• It looks highly likely that Upper Iowa’s (0-3) games against Missouri S&T (4-7) in Rolla, MO will be canceled today.  The high temperature is forecast to be 28.  Hopefully, they can squeeze in 2 games tomorrow when it’s forecast to get up to a balmy 36 and sunny.
• The one game that looks sure to be played today is Winona State’s (1-2) game in Boca Raton, FL against the #1 team in the nation, Lynn University (12-1).  The Warriors didn’t fare all that well last week against #5 ranked Central Missouri so it would be a pretty nice surprise if they can hang in with Lynn who has given up a total of only 9 runs in their last 5 games played.  Winona State is scheduled to play 7 games in Florida over the next 6 days so this will be a test of their endurance and depth.