The Northern State baseball team secured its first series win in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play this season by defeating Minnesota Duluth twice in a three-game series this past weekend.

The Wolves split two games with the Bulldogs at Fossum Field on Saturday, before earning the series victory with a win on Sunday. The first game, the Wolves walked away with a one-run victory, 6-5. The Bulldogs struck first in the top of the first inning, before a single from NSU’s Jordan Hull brought in Brennan Phillips to tie the game in the third. The Wolves appeared to take control when Nick Friedges hit a grand slam home run for a 5-1 lead later in the inning. Duluth tied it back up at 5-5 with four runs in the top of the sixth, before Dylan Soulek singled in Nick Ochoa for the game-winning run.

In the second game, it was all Minnesota Duluth as the Bulldogs jumped out to an early lead and kept the pressure on, scoring once in the first, another run in the fourth, three more in the fifth, four runs in the sixth, and tacking on two more runs in the seventh for an 11-0 win.  Phillips, Dillon Castellanos and Friedges all went 1-for-3 for the Wolves.

NSU put an exclamation point on the series-clinching game on Sunday with a 15-4 win that featured 13 hits, six of which were home runs. Those round-trippers came from Castellanos in the first and fourth innings, Drew Benson in the third and fourth, and Casey Vining and Nick Friedges in the sixth. Benson went 4-for-4 on the day with five RBIs, and Soulek went 3-for-5 and drove in a pair.

On Tuesday, the Wolves hosted Southwest Minnesota State in a doubleheader split. The Wolves lost game one 7-5 and beat the Mustangs in game two 7-3.

In the opener SMSU put up three runs in the third, which the Wolves answered with three runs of their own. Northern gained the lead on a passed ball in the fifth, and extended the margin to 5-3 on a sacrifice fly. The Mustangs finished the game off scoring four runs in the final two innings to give them the 7-5 win. Friedges and Jack Weidner each went 2-for-4 with Weidner also driving in a run.

In game two, SMSU struck first again in the third inning, with the Wolves responding on a Phillips single scoring Michael Benevides. Friedges gave the Wolves a lead on an RBI single to finish off the third-inning scoring. Benevides crossed the plate again in the fifth on an error. The Mustangs tied the game up with two runs in the seventh, but Benevides crossed the plate for the third time, this time on a sac fly from Friedges, followed by an RBI double from Benson. In the Wolves’ final at-bats, Vining extended the lead with a 2-run home run.

Jake Helleloid started the game, pitching six innings, striking out five, with Daulton Vanderloo getting the win in 2.2 innings pitched with three strikeouts.

The softball team traveled to Marshall, Minn., to take on SMSU on Sunday, dropping both games 3-2 and 11-5. In the first game, Avarie Eagle put the Wolves on the board first with a 2-run double, but that was all the Wolves’ offense could manage in game one. SMSU put up a run in the second, and another in the fourth, before securing the game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth. Addy Hobza led the NSU offense with a perfect 3-for-3 day at the plate.

In game two, the Mustangs jumped out to an early lead with two runs in the first, and three in the second, before the Wolves put up two of their own in the fifth on a 2-run home run from Tevan Bryant. The Mustangs answered with three more runs in the bottom half of the inning before Madi Jones and Bryant both recorded RBI singles for the Wolves in the top of the fifth. SMSU put up one more run in the bottom of the fifth frame, while Emma Owens brought in the final Northern run on a single in the sixth, with the Mustangs matching that in the bottom half of the inning.

The men and women’s track and field teams were back in action for outdoor competition in Vermillion. They finished with five event victories and five provisional marks. The first event win came from Chris Weber in the 100m with a provisional mark and a school record time of 10.38, putting him top 20 in the nation.

Jacob Angerhofer took home gold in the 5000m with Jayden Munroe winning the long jump, hitting a provisional mark and setting a school record with a 7.44m jump putting him 10th in the country.

Carson Barnett won the Javelin breaking his own record and hitting a provisional mark as well.

The final provisional mark was hit by Macoya Hansen in the javelin with a 42.53m throw, and the final event victory came from Alli Jackson in the 800m.

This week in Wolves Athletics, the track and field teams are competing in the Red Raider Open which started Wednesday and wraps up today. They will then compete in the Viking Twilight on Tuesday.

Wolves baseball will hit the road to take on Bemidji State in a three-game series with two games on Friday and the other on Saturday.

The softball team will also be on the road taking on Minnesota-Duluth on Friday, and St. Cloud State on Saturday.