The Bemidji State University baseball team closed the 2011 season with 16-5 and 10-7 losses to No. 9 Minnesota State University, Mankato Sunday in a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference doubleheader. The games also closed the playing careers of nine senior student-athletes.
The Beavers (18-29, 12-21 NSIC) held small early leads in both contests, but just couldn’t find a way to end MSU’s (39-8, 31-3 NSIC) school-record 27 game winning streak. All nine seniors saw the field in the losses. BSU ended the season with 18 overall wins, the most under head coach Tim Bellew (six seasons) and since the 2002 team went 19-11 overall and 12-2 in the NSIC.
In game one the Beavers scored two runs in the second and three in the third to own a 5-2 lead. Four of the five runs came off homeruns, a two-run bomb from junior Juan Molero (Maracaibo, Venezuela) in the second and a two-run jack from freshman Zach Braun (Lakeville, Minn.) in the third. Molero drove in the other run for BSU in the third as the squad produced the three runs on four hits.
It was all MSU after that as the Mavericks got one in the fourth and then posted an eight-run fifth to own a 11-5 advantage. A five spot put the game well out of reach in the seventh to make the final score 16-5.
BSU had four errors in the game after making five miscues in game two Saturday, which was a season-high. The Beavers got its five runs on 10 hits. Molero was 2-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored. Senior outfielder Nick Jelacie (Brainerd, Minn.) has his final two hit game as a Beaver, going 2-for-3. Senior Brian Murphy (1B, Longville, Minn.) posted his third three-hit game of the season, going 3-for-4 with a run scored.
Senior right-hander Ryan Sander (St. James, Minn.) made his final start on the mound in the green and white in game one, throwing 4.1 innings and suffering the loss, falling to 3-4 on the season. Senior right-hander Bryan Jamieson (Maplewood, Minn.) made his final appearance on the bump, throwing two innings of relief baseball. He allowed six runs on five hits with three strikeouts. Senior Ryan Guy (OF, Fountain Hills, Ari.) got the final two outs of the top of the seventh inning, needing just seven pitches.
Sophomore Logan Kalis (RHP, Little Falls, Minn.) got the Beavers out front in game two with a two-run homerun over the left field fence in the first inning. The Mavericks got one in the third and one in the fourth to knot the game, but BSU produced a run in the bottom half of the fourth to retake the lead at 3-2. Senior Brian Ahlers (INF, Champlin, Minn.) drove home the run with a two out single to left center. He plated fellow senior Murphy, who led off the inning with a double to straight-a-way center.
Again the fifth inning was the road team’s best friend as it posted seven runs in the frame to own a 9-3 lead. One more run in the sixth handed MSU a 10-3 lead. Just went it looked liked the Mavericks would run away with another win the Beavers made things interesting with a solo homerun by senior Joe Chism (Great Bend, Kan.) in the sixth, a run in the seventh and two runs in the eighth to make the score 10-7.
Sophomore Lewis Baumann (MIF, Colorado Springs, Colo.) lead-off the seventh with a double then moved to third on a ground out and scored on a wild pitch. Senior outfielder Colton Smith (Waddell, Ariz.) singled through the left side with runners on second and third in the eighth to plate two runs.
Unfortunately for BSU it couldn’t complete the comeback, stranding four runners in the final three innings of the game. The Beavers had 11 hits in the game with Murphy, Chism and Baumann all tallying two hits.
Senior right-hander Ryan Gebur (New Prague, Minn.) started for the last time as a Beaver, falling to 1-7 on the season, throwing 4.1 innings and allowing eight runs on nine hits with two strikeouts. Freshman Ryan Rothing (RHP, Belgrade, Mont.) threw 3.2 innings, allowing two runs on six hits. Guy pitched his last inning for BSU in the ninth, keeping MSU hitless in his time on the mound. He only needed seven pitches in the second game to get the three outs.