St. Cloud, Minn. - The St. Cloud State University baseball team's (39-10) offense was in top form in the opening round of play at the 2019 NSIC tournament as the Huskies charted a huge 14-0 victory over Minnesota Crookston (28-20) on Thursday, May 9 at Dick Putz Field in St. Cloud, Minn.

The #3 seeded Huskies made a quick statement in the contests as they put up a five run lead in the first inning thanks in part to a three-run home run by Mathew Meyer to get the offense cooking.  Later in the first, a double by Aaron Hammann brought home Caeden Harris and Toran Shahidi to make it 5-0.

Those runs proved to be all that SCSU would need as senior pitching ace Dominic Austing would gain the win with five scoreless innings that featured four strikeouts and two hits allowed.

SCSU's offense continued to rack up runs in the second inning with a sac fly by Meyer that scored Mallek.  In the third inning, Ethan Ibarra made it 8-0 with a two-run homer that scored Hammann.  In the fourth inning, Mallek joined the hit  a solo home run (his team-leading 12th of the season) to make the tally 9-0.

After a scoreless fifth inning, Shahidi added SCSU's fourth round-tripper of the game with a grand slam that brought around Meyer, Mallek and Lenny Walker. To complete the scoring in the game, a sac fly by Ibarra scored Hammann to make the final 14-0.

On the day, SCSU outhit the Golden Eagles 15-4, as Mallek and Hammann each had three hits apiece in the game. 

The Huskies will now return to action in the NSIC tournament with a 2:30 p.m. game on Friday, May 10 against Minnesota State at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud.  The tournament opens on May 10 with an 11:00 a.m. game between Wayne State and Winona State at Joe Faber Field, while Northern State and Minnesota Crookston will play on Dick Putz Field at 11:30 a.m.  The winners of the first two games will advance in the tournament, while the losing teams will be eliminated from tournament play.  In the final game of the day, Augustana and Minot State will play at 3:00 p.m. on Dick Putz Field in the other winners' bracket game.

Tickets for the SCSU-MSU game will be available at the Joe Faber Field box office on game day.

For complete tournament information, please visit: www.northernsun.org/nsicbase