The bats were quiet for the Riverland baseball team in Saturday's doubleheader against Rochester Community and Technical College at Seltz Field.
This was the final Minnesota College Athletic Conference, South Division doubleheader of the season and the visiting RCTC Yellowjackets swept the Blue Devils with wins of 5-0 and 9-1 on the day.
"We've got a lot of guys banged up with injuries and that's taking its toll," Riverland coach Scott Koenigs said. "We lost a couple of more guys in this doubleheader, so hopefully they can recover for the state tournament games later in the week. We just didn't do much with the bats."
Brian Voigt was the pitcher for the Blue Devils in the first game and he went the distance in taking the loss. Voigt kept it close, until RCTC scored a pair of runs in each of the final two innings.
Despite the lack of an offensive attack, the Blue Devils were still only down 1-0 through five innings. The home team had a couple of runners aboard in the bottom of the second, but left them stranded on base.
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There were only three hits for the Blue Devils in the opener. They got a runner to second base in the fifth, but a strikeout ended that threat. Two more runners were aboard in the bottom of the seventh and once again, it was to no avail.
The visitors broke the first game open with a two-run homer from Angel Talamantes in the top of the sixth. RCTC got two more runs off Voigt in the seventh to cap the shutout. Brad Kohn blanked the Riverland offense for the mound win.
"That first game was a good pitcher's duel until Brian gave up the homer in the sixth," Koenigs said. "It came with two outs and two strikes on the batter, then Brian hung a curveball. He should've never thrown a curve in that situation and Talamantes hit it out."
After getting a hit early in the second game, Voigt pulled his hamstring and had to leave the field. Derek Hahn also injured his finger and had to leave the late game.
Seven runs in the second inning by RCTC took care of the competitive phase of this game. Brad Winkelman was the starter for Riverland in the late affair and took the loss.
"An error opened the door to their big second inning and all seven of those runs in that rally were unearned," Koenigs said. "We're scheduled to play Iowa Lakes (Monday) to end the regular season, but if the weather is bad then that won't be made up. We have to get ready to defend our state title later in the week."
Riverland (32-10, 9-7 MCAC South) plays a rematch with RCTC on Thursday in the first round of the MCAC State Tournament. Riverland is the fifth seed and the first game is scheduled for a 3 p.m. start in St. Cloud.
FIRST GAME
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RCTC 5, Riverland 0
RCTC .......#100#002#2#—#5#10#1
Riverland .....#000#000#0#—#0#3#1
Rochester CTC:WP: Brad Kohn 7 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 4 K.
Riverland:Brad Winkleman 1-for-3; Dustin Fritz 1-for-3; Winston Smith 1-for-3. LP: Brian Voigt 7 IP, 5 R, 3 ER, 10 H, 3 BB, 2 K.
SECOND GAME
RCTC 9, Riverland 1
RCTC .......#071#001#0#—#9#10#2
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Riverland .....#001#000#0#—#1#4#4
Riverland:Voigt 1-for-2; Fritz 1-for-2; Winkelman 1-for-2; Kyle Young 1-for-2, walk, run; Jeff Huth 0-for-3, RBI. LP: Winkelman 2 IP, 8 R, 1 ER, 4 H, 3 BB, 0 K. RP: Drew Madsen 3 1/3 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 3 H, 1 BB, 1 K; Marqui Ransome 1 2/3 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 2 BB, 1 K.
