Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

Billings, Mont. – Montana State Billings baseball team split their games in the first day of competition with Saint Martin's University. The Yellowjackets used a huge four run ninth inning to defeat the Saints 5-2 in game one. MSUB's offense stalled in game two as Saint Martin's claimed the 4-0 victory.


Game 1: MSUB 5 – Saint Martin's 2
 
Colby Robison helped spark the Yellowjackets offense in the top of the ninth, as they scored four runs to steal the win from Saint Martin's. While the hitters were inconsistent most of the day, they owned a 9-5 advantage over the Saints at the plate. Robison finished 2-5, batting two runs in and scoring one of his own. Colter Sternhagen also went 2-5 on the day and scored one run.
 
Brady Muller had a great day at the office, and deserves most of the credit for MSUB's triumph. He pitched the entire contest, and held Saint Martin's to five hits and two runs while retiring four batters.
 
Zach Carter was a worthy counterpart, as he put in 6.2 innings of work and tallied a game high five strikeouts while only giving up one run. Bobby Twedt had the best day out of the Saint's hitting crew, finishing 2-4 with one double and on run batted in.
 
Saint Martin's took the 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second when Alex Bielaski doubled to right center to bring Chandler Tracy across. They would extend their lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth as Tracy scored his second run off a Twedt single.
 
After six scoreless innings, the Yellowjackets scored their first run in the top of the seventh, when Robison hit a single up the middle to drive home Brody Miller, cutting the opposition's lead in half (2-1).
 
While the Saint's pitching staff was formidable most of the day, they struggled to close out the game and MSUB capitalized off every mistake in their final at bats. Austin Rue was hit by a pitch to get on base, and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. Robison brought Rue home on a single to even the score 2-2.
 
Mack Unruh's sacrifice fly drove Robison home to give the Jackets the 3-2 lead. Sternhagen and Brad Birch would score the other two runs in the inning to give MSU Billings the three run advantage (5-2) going into the bottom of the ninth.
 
Muller completed the comeback as he struck out one batter, and forced two fly outs. He improves to 2-2 on the year.
 
Game 2: MSUB 0 – SMU 4
 
Saint Martin's came back strong in the second game behind the arm of Brendan Jeffers. The Saint's ace pitched all seven innings, recorded five strikeouts, and only allowed three hits as he shut down the Jackets' offense. To further complicate matters MSUB had four errors compared to none by the opposition.
 
Samuel Patterson got the start for MSUB and gave a great effort to try to keep the Yellowjackets in the game, finishing with a game high five strikeouts.
 
After three scoreless innings, the Saints broke the ice in the bottom of the fourth when Twedt scored off a Blake Lord single to right field. Saint Martin's tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the fifth giving them a firm hold on the contest (4-0).
 
MSUB went three up, three down in the top of the six; and could not bring home any runners in the top of the seventh as they left two on base. The Saints went on to claim their first GNAC victory of the season (3-12, 1-1).
 
“Our guys played hard today and our pitching was solid once again,” stated third year head coach Rob Bishop. “In the first game we rallied late in the contest and finished off a great win. In game two we ran into a hot pitcher in Jeffers; he was very good today and simply beat us.”
 
Now at 6-15-1 overall, 2-4 in the GNAC, the Yellowjackets will prepare for their first home game of 2013 as they take on Northwest Nazarene in a four game series starting Friday, March 16. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Dehler Park.