SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) - The Augustana baseball team dropped a Sunday afternoon game against Minnesota Crookston 6-4 at Ronken Field.
The Vikings fall to 13-8 overall and 8-4 in the NSIC while the Golden Eagles move to 9-13 while evening out their conference record at 6-6.
Jack Hines went 2 for 5 with a home run, two RBI and a run scored while Sam Siegel added two hits, including a double. Jason Axelberg had two hits as well while Bjorn Lind had a hit and three walks.
Kai Taylor earned the start, allowing three hits and a pair of unearned runs in three innings of action. Harry Blum was a force out of the ‘pen, going 5 2/3 and allowing a run while striking out 12.
The Golden Eagles crossed the plate with one out in the first inning to open the scoring. With one out in the bottom of the inning, Bjorn Lind singled before a two-run blast off the bat of Hines put AU up 2-1.
In the third, UMC evened the score with an RBI double. Axelberg singled to lead off the bottom of the inning and advanced to second when Troy Berg reached on an error. Joshua Koskie lifted a fly ball to deep right field with no outs that would get caught, but Axelberg raced around from second base to score and put AU back in front 3-2.
Each team traded 0’s until the bottom of the fifth. With one out, Koskie doubled down the right field line to jumpstart the offense and with two outs, Sam Siegel singled to bring Koskie home and make it 4-2 Vikings.
With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, the Golden Eagles surged back with a two-run blast to even the score at 4-4. UMC scored two more in the top of the 10th and held off a bases loaded threat to complete the split.
The Vikings will take on the Bulldogs of Minnesota Duluth next weekend, with date, location and time TBD.
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