Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN
The Rochester Community and Technical College baseball team played four games over the weekend on its way to a 2-2 split.
On Saturday the Yellowjackets took two games from Minnesota West in Worthington, the first 5-4 and the second 12-2 in five innings.
But on Sunday, RCTC lost two games to Ridgewater Community College in Willmar, 3-1 and 7-2.
In the first game against Minnesota West, Keegan Byrne and Wade Yunker produced heavily for the Yellowjackets as both were 2-for-4 from the plate in the 5-4 win.
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Byrne had a run, an RBI, and stole two bases, while Yunker had a home run with two RBIs.
Brady Mosenden played a strong relief role, pitching 3 1/3 innings with no runs, one hit and four strikeouts.
In the second game, RCTC’s bats were hot in the 12-2 five-inning game.
Shane Brandt produced enough offense for the team. He was 3-for-4 with three runs, three RBIs and a home run.
Seth Karlsrud, Byrne, Dylan Berg, and Tyler Smith all added two hits.
Chase Olson had a strong outing with five innings pitched, three hits, four strikeouts, four walks and two earned runs.
"Both games I thought we did a good job keeping ourselves in it," RCTC coach Steve Hucke said. "(We) did a nice job bouncing back. (Their) pitcher kept us off balance in the first game (and) kept them in the game. But we got some clutch plays defensively and backed up our pitcher."
Sunday was a different story.
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Lee Dolan pitched six innings with seven strikeouts, two walks and three runs, two of which were earned in a 3-1 loss to Ridgewater.
But the RCTC bats were cold as Jimi Zawacki brought home Matt Baier for the team’s only run.
Kyle Pronschinske had a rough first inning, allowing five earned runs to start the second game.
Hucke stuck with his starter.
"After that first inning he settled down and only allowed two more runs," Hucke said. "Take away that first inning and it would have been a nail-biter ball game."
But even after Pronschinske started to cool the Ridgewater bats, the Yellowjackets got only a Shane Brandt two-run home run and lost 7-2, dropping both games of the doubleheader.
RCTC went 2-2 for the weekend and goes to 15-18 on the season.
The Yellowjackets will head to Austin on Tuesday for a doubleheader against Riverland starting at 2 p.m.
