The Minnesota West baseball and softball teams each played doubleheaders against MCAC South division rivals this past weekend.
The baseball team played a road doubleheader against Century College Saturday before the two teams came to Worthington to play another doubleheader on Sunday. The Bluejays went 1-3 in the four games.
The Minnesota West softball team played a Saturday doubleheader against St. Cloud Technical CC, losing both times.
Looking ahead, both teams will have more road doubleheaders this week against MCAC South opponents. Here’s a look at the matchups for each team and a recap of how last weekend’s games went.
Baseball
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The Bluejays have a 10-14 overall record and a 1-3 conference record so far. Their 10 wins overall are already more than they had last season, having gone 9-27 that year.
They will face a road doubleheader against Dordt JV on Wednesday and then they’ll go against Western Technical College for doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.
Dordt JV has a 1-7 record this season, having earned its first win of the year in a doubleheader last week. Western Technical is 5-19 overall and 2-6 in the MCAC South this year. The Cavaliers and Bluejays are tied for third in the division standings in winning percentage.
The Cavaliers are coming off weekend doubleheaders against Rochester CTC where they went 1-3. This weekend’s doubleheaders will feature a pair of games Saturday in Worthington and another in La Crosse, Wisconsin on Sunday.
The Bluejays are also coming off a 1-3 record last weekend in doubleheaders against Century College. Those games marked the first against MCAC South division opponents for Minnesota West.
The first two games took place at Century College and the Bluejays lost game one 12-2 and then lost game two 11-6.
In the first game, the Wood Ducks got on the board right away with a three-run home run in the first inning. They scored another run in the second inning before the Bluejays got on the board with two runs in the top of the fourth.
Nicolas Espitia hit a sacrifice RBI to score the first run and then Daniel Castro did the same thing to score the second.
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After Minnesota West cut the score to 4-2, Century College scored four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and then four more in the bottom of the fifth before sealing the win in five innings via the 10-run rule.
The Bluejays scored first in game two with two runs in the second inning off a 2-RBI goundball off a Century College error.
The Wood Ducks quickly responded with six runs in the bottom of the second before Minnesota West scored two more in the top of the third. The first run was scored on a home run from Axell Espino and the second on an RBI single from Ridge Inhofer to cut the score to 6-4.
Century College again responded with five runs in the bottom of the third inning before the Bluejays tacked on a run in the fifth and another in the seventh.
In Sunday’s doubleheader in Worthington, the Bluejays lost the first game 20-9 and then responded with an 11-5 win in the second game.
Game one on Sunday saw the Bluejays start well as they grabbed an 8-3 lead through two innings. The Wood Ducks scored three times in the top of the fourth inning, but the Bluejays scored once in the bottom frame to take a 9-6 lead.
The Jays couldn’t hold onto that lead though as Century scored seven runs in the sixth and seventh innings to take the commanding lead in the end.
The final game of the weekend saw the Bluejays trail 3-0 after three innings before storming ahead for good with a seven-run outburst in the bottom of the fourth that started with a 2-run homer from Inhofer. After that, the Jays scored four more runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to storm ahead even more and lead them to victory.
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Conner Eich pitched a complete game for Minnesota West and he allowed only seven hits.
Softball
After three consecutive home doubleheaders, the Minnesota West softball team will be heading back on the road this week. The Lady Jays are scheduled for a Tuesday doubleheader against Rochester CTC and then a Friday doubleheader against M State Fergus Falls.
Since beating the Lady Jays twice last Tuesday, Rochester has since won four games in a row to extend its current win streak to six games. That pushed the Yellowjackets’ record to 15-16 overall and 7-1 in the MCAC South, which sits atop the conference standings.
In the last doubleheader between the two schools, Rochester won both games by scores of 10-1 and 14-5 respectively.
After the Tuesday doubleheader, the Lady Jays will take on Fergus Falls on Friday. The two teams played each other in an April 6 doubleheader and Minnesota West won both games by scores of 12-10 and 19-11 respectively.
But the Lady Jays’ most recent pair of games came against St. Cloud Technical last Saturday. The scores of both games were lopsided as the Jays lost both games by a combined score of 37-2.
In the first game, the Lady Jays didn’t have a single hit as the Cyclones jumped out to a 13-0 victory. The Jays then scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning of game two, one of which came on an RBI from Makenzie Allen. The Cyclones then scored 10 runs in the top of the second to help pull away.
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Minnesota West had five total hits in the game with Allen and Alayna Wingate collecting two each and Chloe Ramthun.
Lady Jays head coach Keith Swenson thought his team’s defense played well in the second game as it only committed a couple of errors.
The Jays are 3-6 overall and 2-4 in conference play and Swenson said the girls are improving as the season goes along.
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