MINOT, ND – Making his final collegiate start, University of Mary right-hander
Nicholas Stobbe had a day to remember. Eschewing today's commencement ceremonies in Bismarck, ND, in favor of pitching in a road game at Minot State University, the senior tossed a career-high nine innings to lead the Marauders to a 5-3 win over the Beavers and gain a split of the Northern Sun doubleheader.
Minot State won the opener 16-0.
Throwing over 150 pitches, the complete game for Stobbe was the third of his career and second this season. The nine innings exceeded his previous best of eight. The native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, struck out five and walked just one, allowing two earned runs and eight hits. He evens his record at 4-4 this season and is 3-1 in his last five starts. Stobbe also had his first career save earlier this week.
Three other seniors also played key roles in the win. The top two hitters in the lineup,
Andrew Beyer and
Seth Meide both scored twice and cleanup hitter
Lane Huck drove in three runs.
The Marauders broke on the board in the opening inning behind back-to-back doubles by Beyer and Meide to start the game. Huck gave UMary a 2-0 lead when his sacrifice fly in foul territory down the right field line scored Meide for the second run of the stanza.
UMary doubled its lead to 4-0 in the third. Back-to-back walks to Beyer and Meide with one out, an error and a stolen base by Meide placed both runners in scoring position. After the next hitter was retired, Huck singled through the left side with two outs to score both Beyer and Meide.
The Beavers chipped away with single runs in the third and fifth innings but couldn't get any momentum going against Stobbe, who set Minot State down in order in the sixth for the only time of the game. He hit a batter in the seventh but the Beavers failed to take advantage.
After Mary scored a single run in the top of the seventh when a
Travis Stevens base hit through the right side scored
Connor Doll to extend the Marauders lead to 5-2, Minot State's Celestine Rodriguez two-out double made the deficit just two runs. A clutch strike out by Stobbe followed to close out the inning.
Needing a win to stay in fifth place in the NSIC, the Beavers kept fighting. Stobbe retired the first hitter of the ninth inning before allowing a base hit and a walk to consecutive hitters. After a strikeout, Stobbe hit the next Minot State batter to load the bases. With the tying run on second, Stobbe induced cleanup hitter Justin Demary to hit a soft roller between the pitcher's mound and first base. Fielding his position perfectly, Stobbe raced over to field the ball and flip it to fellow senior
Drew Feuerbach at first for the final out.
The Beavers rolled to a win in the opener behind an 18-hit attack. The Marauders pitchers also walked eight batters and hit another while the defense committed two errors. Sean Alp had four hits and scored five runs and Wyatt Schlosser posted three hits and drove in four runs for MSU.
The Marauders (12-33 overall, 8-28 NSIC) close out the regular season against the Beavers (23-18, 18-15) on Sunday, April 30. The doubleheader begins at noon.
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