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Spartans Beat Rainy River Twice

By Craig Olson, 05/07/21, 5:45PM CDT

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The M State baseball team swept Rainy River in a double header on Thursday in Fergus Falls, winning 13-2 and 11-4.  The Spartans improved their season record to 15-19 and their home record to 9-5.  They will close out their regular season schedule with a home game against Rochester on Sunday at 1:00pm.

A 9-run second inning gave the Spartans a commanding 9-1 lead in game one, however, Rainy River cut the lead to 9-7 with a pair of 3-run innings in the third and fourth.  A four-run bottom of the fourth gave the Spartans a cushion they would need as they built a 13-7 lead.  The Voyageurs came up with two runs in the fifth and three more in the seventh, but came up one run short even though they had 16 hits compared to 13 for M State.

The Spartans hit four home runs in the game as Justin Dykhoff, Christian Norby, Wyatt Hamann and Ty Kargar all went deep.  Norby, Hamann, Austin Oetter and Isaiah Sykora added doubles.  Norby (3-4, 2 RBI, 2R), Dykhoff (2-4, 2 RBI, 2R), Hamann (2-4, 2 RBI, 3R), Kargar (1-3, 3 RBI, R), Oetter (2-3, RBI, 2R, SB) and Tyler Wapola (2-3, RBI) led the offensive onslaught for M State.  Daniel Buendorf (2IP, 3H, 4R, 2ER, 3BB, 2K) was the winning pitcher and Dykhoff got the final out to earn the save.

In the second game, the Spartans overcame a 4-1 deficit with a 5-run third inning and added two more in the fourth, one in the fifth and two in the sixth.  They collected 11 hits in the game with Norby and Oetter clouting round trippers.  Hitting leaders were Kargar (3-4, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI, 2R), Hamann (2-4, RBI, 2R), Michael Maanum (2-3, RBI), Norby (1-3, 2 RBI, 2R) and Dane Schwirtz (2-4, 2B, RBI, 2R).  Dykhoff (7IP, 6H, 4R, 1ER, 9K, 0BB) went the distance to get the victory.

“It was a great day,” said M State Head Coach Grant Harding.  “We came away with a sweep.  We had to grind out a win in the first in a slugfest and played pretty well in the second game.  The ball was flying out of the yard today. Justin was really good on the mound with a win and a save.”