The Mavericks entered the weekend first in the NSIC standings, leading the conference in homeruns, and are ranked No. 28 in the American Baseball Coaches Association.

“We have a younger team, and just having them understand that you can play with a top-25 team in the country if you compete, if you stay focused and you stay locked in,” SMSU head coach Jeremy Ische said. “If you play good baseball, if you throw strikes, you don’t give teams free stuff, don’t let them run all over you with stolen bases, don’t walk them, and you make them have to earn what they get. But, we’ve got a situation to hit a little bit better, too.”

The third game in particular was all about plate performance, which saw a combined 11 homeruns, eight coming from the Mavericks. MSU had 12 homers across the weekend series.

SMSU’s thrilling win in the first matchup on Saturday was capped with a triple play to end the game, marking the Mustangs’ first triple play in a decade. The last one came in the 2016 season.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Southwest Minnesota State University's Lane Moline signals to the dugout after reaching first on a base hit in the third game of a weekend series against Minnesota State on Sunday at Legion Field in Marshall.

Jameson Quinn got the exhilarating win on the mound for SMSU in game 1, who pitched a complete game allowing no walks with five hits and tossed four strikeouts. Tyler Nesheim was charged with the loss in the second game, throwing four strikeouts and one walk, allowing eight hits and three earned runs in his four starting innings.

Area prep graduates also got some time on the mound over the weekend, with Minneota 2024 graduate Ryan Dalager pitching an inning in game 2 and for an out in the third. Cody Wichmann, a 2023 graduate of Russell-Tyler-Ruthton, got the start on Sunday and finished his three innings with four strikeouts, allowing three walks, eight hits and seven earned runs.

SMSU (16-20, 6-19 NSIC) will next look to bounce back when it hosts Winona State for a doubleheader on Wednesday at Legion Field. First pitch is slated for 1:30 p.m. with the second game to follow.

“I told the guys we have to have a short term memory. It doesn’t matter if you lose by 10 or if you lose by one, they all count the same,” Ische said. “We got Winona State coming here at home on Wednesday, should be good weather and a good crowd for that one, then we have Jamestown for our first time ever playing them in conference [next weekend]. That should be a good weekend with all that stuff. It’s Senior Day for us as well on Sunday, so it should be fun to have a lot of families and parents in the mix.”

GAME 1

Photo by Samantha Davis: Southwest Minnesota State University's Jared Cortez begins to swing at a pitch in the third game of a weekend series against Minnesota State on Sunday at Legion Field in Marshall.

SMSU 4, MSU 1 (7 inn.)

SMSU’s game 1 win over the Mavericks to open the series was the third win for the Mustangs over MSU since the 2010 season, with two coming over the last three years under Ische.

The Mustangs’ game-ending triple play in the top of the seventh saved their win, with MSU runners on first and second with the possibility of tying the game up. The Mavericks hit a grounder to Nathan Wheeler at third base for the force out, who threw it over to Jared Cortez at second base, and Cortez completed the play with a throw to Levi Lampert at first.

“It was awesome intensity in that first [game]. Jameson Quinn pitched a great baseball game, all seven [innings] on [79] pitches, he was really good. I don’t know how many games have ended on a triple play before, but that was quite unique,” Ische said. “A really good job by Wheeler to Cortez to our first baseman there.”

Following three scoreless innings for both teams to open the game, SMSU took a 3-0 lead with a trio of runs in the bottom of the fourth.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Southwest Minnesota State University and Russell-Tyler-Ruthton graduate Cody Wichmann throws a pitch in the third game of a weekend series against Minnesota State on Sunday at Legion Field in Marshall.

Henry Hammrich scored the first run on a Caden King RBI double. Hammrich first got on base with a single to left field.

Brock Woitalla scored off a wild pitch, who also singled to right-center field for a base hit and got to third off King’s hit.

King was then able to find his way home as well, also on a wild pitch.

MSU got on the board with a run in the top of the fifth on an RBI single, and the Mustangs found a response in the bottom of the frame with another run to take back their three-run lead. Jacob Merrill accounted for the run behind a Woitalla single.

The Mustangs outhit MSU 8-5, and played a clean game with no errors while the Mavericks had one error.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Southwest Minnesota State University's Nathan Wheeler leads off of second base in the third game of a weekend series against Minnesota State on Sunday at Legion Field in Marshall.

Woitalla and King led SMSU offensively with two hits and one RBI each in the win.

GAME 2

MSU 10, SMSU 4 (9 inn.)

The Mavericks exploded for five unanswered runs in the fifth inning to pull away in the second game, and continued to chip away with another pair of runs in each the seventh and ninth innings to even the weekend series up with SMSU 1-1.

The Mustangs got their bats going and scored all four runs in the seventh inning to cut into a 8-4 deficit. Woitalla, King, Lane Moline and Cortez accounted for the runs, highlighted by Cortez’s two-run RBI single.

Photo by Samantha Davis: Southwest Minnesota State University's Lane Moline (left) and Nathan Wheeler (right) meet Caden King (center) at home after he hit a homerun in the third game of a weekend series against Minnesota State on Sunday at Legion Field in Marshall.

But, MSU scored its final two insurance runs in its final at-bat while holding SMSU scoreless.

Cortez went 3 of 4 at the plate with two RBIs to lead the Mustangs, and Moline followed with another pair of hits.

SMSU was also hurt by its four committed errors, to MSU’s zero.

The Mustangs went through seven pitchers in the game after Neisheim’s first four. Max Hudlow and Dalager got the most time, tossing an inning each, led by Dalager’s two strikeouts.

GAME 3

MSU 24, SMSU 5 (7 inn.)

The final game of the series was all Mavericks after drilling in eight homeruns, three of which came in the second inning.

SMSU had three homeruns as well, one each from King in the fourth, Carter Lang in the second and from Connor Davis in the fifth.

“We have to certainly stay out of 3-ball counts on the mound. There were so many times today where we were 1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1,” Ische said. “They [MSU] are a really good offensive team, and they’re talented for a reason. You throw in fastballs and fastball counts, and you haven’t landed a secondary pitch, it’s going to be really difficult to take the sting out of the swing … It got away from us a little bit there.”

The Mavericks got on the board in their first plate appearance in the first inning following a double stolen base with a runner on third and taking second. But, MSU put a big dagger on its win with its trio of homers in the top of the second.

Jake Berkland hit a three-run homer over the right-center field fence to get the Mavericks’ rally started.

After Hammrich made an impressive diving catch in center field to give SMSU two outs, Louis Magers and Cole Yearsley hit back-to-back single homeruns to give MSU a 6-0 lead.

Lang had a quick response, hitting his ball over the right field fence in hopes to get some Mustang momentum going. The homerun marked Lang’s first this season.

Yet, MSU hit three more two-run homers over the next few frames to eventually take a 13-2 edge. One came in the top of the fourth, with two consecutive in the fifth.

King hit his single homerun in the half-inning between in the bottom of the fourth, sending the ball over center field.

The Mavericks’ lead was ultimately too much to overcome for SMSU the rest of the way, as MSU continued to put the game away at the plate. The Mustangs went through six pitchers in the final game.

MSU ended the game with a 20-12 hitting advantage over SMSU.