Photo by Samantha Davis: Southwest Minnesota State University pitcher Ryan Bell throws from the mound during the second game of a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference baseball doubleheader against Bemidji State, Tuesday at Legion Field in Marshall.

MARSHALL — Ryan Bell pitched a season-high seven strikeouts along with seven shutout innings to help the Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team split a doubleheader with Bemidji State Tuesday afternoon in a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference matchups. The Mustangs dropped the first game 7-4, but responded with a 4-1 win in the second behind Bell’s pitching.

The Beavers served as the home team for both games, as the matchup was relocated to Legion Field due to poor field and weather conditions in Bemidji. BSU’s win in the first game snapped a 10-game skid, as well as a 15-game head-to-head losing streak against the Mustangs. The last time Bemidji beat SMSU prior to Tuesday was April 2021.

“Every win is good, every win is hard. Winning isn’t normal, winning is difficult,” SMSU head coach Jeremy Ische said. “You take them when you can get them, [but] we left a lot of guys on base in both baseball games.”

Jared Cortez and Connor Davis led SMSU in the first game offensively with two hits each, along with Cortez’s team-high two runs. Davis and Henry Hammrich shared a team-high two hits apiece in the second game.

Austin Dent pitched a majority of the opening game for 4 1/3 innings of relief, and finished with a game-high four strikeouts while allowing six hits, one earned run and one walk.

With his season-high strikeouts, Bell finished his strong performance in the second game allowing two walks, five hits and one run through his eight innings pitched.

“It was good. I was just trying to bounce back from the weekend, and just trying to do my best and help get my team a win,” Bell said, who turned things around after allowing six hits and six runs in the first inning on Sunday.

SMSU (15-14, 5-12 NSIC) will next hit the road for a three-game series against Northern State (7-13, 5-10 NSIC) this weekend. Friday’s doubleheader will start at 1:30 p.m. with the second game to follow, and Sunday’s first pitch is slated for noon.

BSU 7, SMSU 4

With near-25-miles-per-hour winds gusting toward right field, base hits came sparingly throughout the afternoon for both teams.

The Beavers brought in a trio of runs in their first plate appearance in the bottom of the first inning for a quick 3-0 lead. All three runs came from a series of RBIs, two of which were singles along with a ground-out.

SMSU made the pitching change from Tyler Nesheim to Dent in the bottom of the second inning with two runners on base and one out, finishing Nesheim’s day allowing three hits and three runs with two walks.

Cortez made a double play at second base with a catch and force out to prevent extra runs in Dent’s first batter.

Shortstop Brock Woitalla and Cortez both accounted for a handful of strong infield defensive plays throughout the afternoon to keep SMSU within reach.

“Not just today, but all year, Jared’s got a ton of put-outs and assists at second base. Brock’s a special player. He’s got some good arm at short, and he knows how to play, and he’s got good feet … Those two are really good up the middle,” Ische said.

The Mustangs got a run on the board in the top of the fourth to cut into a 3-1 deficit, taking advantage of BSU miscues.

Hammrich, Josh Berreth and Evan Behn were each hit by pitches consecutively, forcing the Beavers to make a pitching change from Quintin Selway to Connor Donlin.

With bases loaded and one out, a Nathan Wheeler sacrifice fly out to right field allowed Berreth enough time to tag third and run home before the Beavers could wrap up the inning with a pair of ground-outs.

SMSU put together another similar situation in the fifth inning after Hammrich hit a sacrifice line drive to center field, but Cortez was able to tag up and score to bring the Mustangs within one run, down 3-2.

Cortez was stationed at third after initially hitting an infield single, and advanced two bases off a double from Davis to deep left-center field.

Both the Mustangs and Beavers played a competitive defensive game, as Dent continued to perform well on the mound.

BSU ultimately saved its win with a few insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to take a 7-2 lead.

The Beavers rattled off three straight hits to get bases loaded with no outs, and scored the first run of the rally off an RBI single. A Mustangs’ throwing error on a fielder’s choice allowed another run, with a throw from Wheeler at third base to catcher Caden King that went low.

Another two-run RBI single on a fly ball to the gap in right field added to the Beavers’ edge before SMSU changed pitchers to Lincoln Vasgaard to finish out the inning.

The Mustangs got the bases loaded in their last at-bat in the top of the seventh and were able to score two runs between a Davis RBI single and a walk, but couldn’t quite finish the comeback as BSU’s defense finished out the game.

BSU outhit SMSU 9-7 and had no errors, to the Mustangs’ two.

GAME 2

SMSU 4, BSU 1

Bell got right to work on the mound with two quick strikeouts in the first inning, and continued to limit the Beavers in creating offensive opportunities as the next few innings went over.

“He’s [Bell] certainly the highlight of the day for us on the mound. Eight innings pitched, 109 pitches, seven strikeouts, five hits, he did a fantastic job battling the elements,” Ische said of Bell’s performance. “He did a great job as far as controlling the running game too, because Bemidji stole some bases this year, and he did a really nice job controlling the game there … He did a really nice job mixing and matching at home plate with his pitches. I’m really proud of him.”

SMSU got the bases loaded with two outs in the top of the third following a pair of walks for Caden King and Davis and an infield hit from Levi Lampert.

Lampert made his way to third off a walk and bunt from Hammrich, and sprinted home off a BSU wild pitch to put the Mustangs ahead 1-0. Bases remained loaded, but the Beavers finished the final out following a pitching change.

Cortez, Lampert and Bell worked together for a double play to highlight the fourth inning on defense to help SMSU hang onto its lead. BSU had runners on first and second, and Lampert fielded a grounder for a toss to Cortez at second for the force out, who threw it back to Bell covering first.

SMSU tacked on two more runs in the top of the sixth inning for a 3-0 lead, between a Cortez RBI single to score Brock Woitalla along with King taking advantage of running home while BSU worked to tag-out Cortez.

“I feel like, definitely as a pitcher, I got to have a little bit more confidence with the wind blowing in, but we weren’t really able to put the ball out of the yard or anything with the wind blowing hard,” Bell said. “Guys are cold, but [we] just got to be mentally tough and figure it out.”

Woitalla hit a leadoff double to the fence of right field to initially reach base.

BSU’s Noah Drusch hit a homer over right field in the bottom of the sixth to get the Beavers on the board, 3-1.

Returning the favor from the first game, SMSU secured its win with the help of a Berreth RBI single in the top of the ninth to score Hammrich as Jameson Quinn relieved Bell for the final inning to finish off the day.

The Mustangs had seven hits and one error in the win, to the Beavers’ six hits and pair of errors.

“It was definitely a good thing to bounce back,” Bell said. “Our team showed a lot of resilience. We weren’t too happy after that first one [game], so coming back and getting that win, it’s definitely a big one in conference.”