Baseball team splits season-opening twinbill

Ethan Branum

The Yellowjacket baseball team opened the 2012 season at Mall of America Field (formerly the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome) in Minneapolis, Minn., taking on Macalester College, the 2011 MIAC Co-Champions in an evening doubleheader. The doubleheader is one of three twinbills the Yellowjackets will play prior to departing for their spring trip to Arizona.

It took the Yellowjackets a while to get the bats going, but in the end they did find the offense and salvaged a split on the day.

Game 1
Macalester 5, Yellowjackets 1
Box Score

In the first game on Tuesday, the Yellowjackets struggled to get the offense rolling, collecting only four hits and scratching out just one run, that coming in the top of the seventh, and final inning.

Senior Nick Bursik (Woodbury, Minn./Stillwater) got the start and pitched five strong innings, scattering eight hits and allowing five runs, four of them earned. Dan Genrich (Wausau, Wis./Wausau West) pitched the final inning.

The Scots got on the board in the bottom of the first inning when Mitch Glasser singled and went to second on a passed ball. He would come around to score on an RBI single by Robert Williams to make it 1-0. The lead went to 2-0 when David Melms walked to lead off the third and came around to score on Glasser's RBI groundout.

In the bottom of the fifth the Scots added their final three runs of the contest, as Williams and Glasser each added their second RBI of the game. The three runs on four hits in the inning made it a 5-0 game.

The Yellowjackets scored their lone run of the game in the top of the seventh. With one out, Tom Fairbanks (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) singled to left and advanced to third on a two out double by Jeff Miller (Minneapolis, Minn./Washburn), later scoring on a wild pitch to make it a 5-1 final.

In addition to Fairbanks and Miller, Michael Doescher (Wausau, Wis./Wausau West) and #T.J. Evanson# also had hits for the Yellowjackets.

Game 2
Yellowjackets 7, Macalester 5
Box Score

The second game saw the Scots jump out to an early lead again before the Yellowjackets enjoyed their first big inning of the season, taking the lead for good and splitting the season-opening doubleheader.

Garrett Salzman opened the scoring for the Scots with an RBI single, and that was quickly followed by a Nick Mar RBI double to make it 2-0 Macalester before the Yellowjackets even came to bat.

The game stayed that way until the bottom of the second inning. Evanson led off with a long home run to center field to make it 2-1. Later, after the bases loaded, Robbie Veith (Brainerd, Minn./Brainerd) singled to center, scoring two, giving the Yellowjackets their first lead of the season at 3-2. A Wyatt Soderquist (Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti) groundout and a Fairbanks double rounded out the scoring, making 5-2 Yellowjackets after two innings.

Genrich had a one-out double in the bottom of the third, and he would come around to score on an error to make it a 6-2 game.

The teams traded runs in the sixth inning, with the Yellowjackets producing a run by Tony Remund (Andover, Minn./Coon Rapids). Remund doubled, later coming around to score on a single by Soderquist to make it 7-3. The Scots would add two more runs in the top of the seventh to close out the scoring.

Ethan Branum (Nisswa, Minn./Brainerd) started the second game, going five innings and giving up two runs (both earned) on five hits. He walked two and struck out two. Branum gave way to Mike Swanson (Superior, Wis./Superior Senior) who finished the game off, allowing three runs (one earned) on two hits over two innings.

Soderquist and Genrich had two hits apiece to pace the Yellowjacket attack, which pounded out nine hits. Veith and Soderquist each had two RBI.

The Yellowjackets (1-1, 0-0 WIAC) will return to Mall of America Field on Monday, March 5, where they will again play a doubleheader against Macalester. First pitch is scheduled for 9:45 p.m.

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