Photo courtesy of Josh Deer/CSP Sports Information SMSU’s Derek Smith slides into home plate in the bottom of the eighth inning to score the game-winning run against Concordia-St. Paul on Thursday.

TUCSON, Ariz. – Jake Hendricks smacked an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth to lift Southwest Minnesota State to a 3-2 victory over Concordia-St. Paul on Thursday afternoon at the Kino Sports Complex.

Jared Tschetter (2-0) picked up the victory tossing the final two innings in relief of starter John Bezdicek.

SMSU improves to 2-4 overall in earning the non-conference win, while CSP drops to 4-5.

CSP took an early lead pushing across single runs in both the first and second innings to take a 2-0 lead after two and a half innings.

SMSU scored its first run of the game in the home half of the third. Andy Andresen started the rally with an infield single and was followed by walks to Kennan Wenzel and Nathan Kuhn to load the bases. Following a strikeout, Brady Lanoue was plunked on the arm to force in a run. The rally was stopped however as CSP relief pitcher Connor Hurley struck out a pair of Mustangs to keep the Golden Bears in the lead at 2-1 after three innings.

SMSU tied the game in the fourth taking advantage of a CSP error. With one out, Derek Smith reached second on a throwing error by the CSP third baseman. Following an infield single by Wenzel to advance Smith to third, Jake Hendricks struck out for the second out. Kuhn then stepped to the plate and ripped a run-scoring single to left to tie the game at 2-2.

The game remained tied until the eighth when SMSU pushed across the winning run. Smith started the rally with a single and advanced to second on a sac bunt by Andy Andresen. Hendricks then stepped up and hammered a 1-1 pitch to right field to score Smith and put SMSU in the lead.

Both teams finished with nine hits as Andresen and Kuhn each collected two hits for the Mustangs.

Bezdicek was solid in seven-plus innings for the Mustangs, allowing two runs on eight hits with eight strikeouts and one walk. Tschettter tossed two shutout innings allowing one hit with one strikeout in securing his second victory of the season.

Southwest Minnesota State continues play today with a 7 p.m. CST contest versus Mount Marty (S.D.).

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