While most students were on beaches sipping their favorite drinks, catching a tan and perhaps finding a spring-break fling, the Winona State University baseball teams spent its spring break scoring 56 runs on 98 hits and three home runs.
The hard part about WSU’s week was piling nine games in seven days, a schedule not often seen in collegiate baseball.
WSU coach Kyle Poock was pleased with the play of his squad during the week, except for a split in the last series against North Dakota.
“We split against them, but you had to look at our rotation,” Poock said. “We had our (number) six and seven guys against their top guys.”
WSU won the first game of the doubleheader 8-3, despite allowing the first three runs of the game and committing three errors.
The Warriors came alive in the sixth inning, scoring three runs in the sixth and exploding for five more in the eighth to put away UND for good.
Mike Brabender got the game-winning hit for WSU in the top of the eighth, driving home two runs on a double.
Kyle Collins followed Brabender’s double with a home run, giving WSU more than enough runs to preserve the win.
WSU found itself in a scoring rut, getting only one run off of eight hits while UND mounted another 3-0 lead, this time not letting WSU make a comeback en route to a 5-1 win.
The loss was the start of a three-game losing streak, as WSU lost its next two games to Saginaw Valley State (Mich.) 3-2 and 2-1.
The game that raised some eyebrows was WSU’s 20-2 throttling of University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.
Poock said it was a game in which he gave some of his starters time off and allowed the backups to shine.
“It was a game where we rested some of our starters and let our backups get in there and they played well,” Poock said. “They went in there and showed they can play college baseball and now they will have a chance to contend for starting positions.”
Brabender was one of the players who played well in the eyes of Poock.
“Mike is a guy that just works his butt off for us, and that proved last week,” Poock said. “He was a tough out to get all week.”
Brabender got four hits in 10 at bats for the Warriors, with three RBIs and three runs scored.
Poock was happy with the bats overall, even though this was the least amount of home runs his team had in their annual trip to Florida.
“I swear every game we played the wind was blowing in.” Poock said. “There were some shots we hit that would have been gone if there wasn’t much wind.
Home runs came from Collins, Joe Kley and Ben Smothers.
Pitching was one of the strengths for WSU coming into the season, and Poock said his staff stood tall in Florida.
“We threw the ball well all week,” Poock said. “We kept ourselves in some games because of it.”
WSU finished the week 5-4, which included a few close losses.
So what’s next for WSU?
“The football field is cleared off now, so we can get some practice there if we need to, but we really want get on our field,” Poock said.
Winona State will open Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play March 21 and 22 against Southwest Minnesota State in a two-game series at the Metrodome.
The Warriors finished second in the NSIC last season before winning the conference tournament and advancing to the NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament.
WSU was tabbed to finish second in the NSIC this season in the preseason coaches’ poll.