BOXSCORES:  GAME 1  |  GAME 2

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - The Wayne State University baseball team (6-3) extended its winning streak to four games after sweeping a doubleheader against the University of Minnesota-Duluth (3-7) on Monday morning at the RussMatt Invitational.

In another narrow and low-scoring result, the Warriors had to go into the eighth inning to come away with a 2-1 victory in the opener. Wayne State blanked UMD, 8-0, in the second game to hand the Bulldogs their seventh straight loss.

The Warriors and Bulldogs were locked into a scoreless tie until the top of the eighth inning in game one. Caleb Dalman (Hudsonville, Mich.) drew a leadoff walk, stole second and scored on an RBI single by Brad Guenther (Ann Arbor, Mich./Saline), who later went to third on an error by UMD third baseman Orry Engebretsen and scored on a passed ball.

Looking for redemption, Engebretsen walked with two outs in the bottom of the inning and came in on Anders Engberg's RBI double. However, Cody Aasen flied out to right to end the game.

In his third career start, Alex Pierse (Clinton Twp., Mich./De La Salle) went the distance for his first win of the year. He scattered seven hits, walked three and struck out eight. Adam Zwak allowed just four hits and struck out six over 6.0 innings before giving way to Collin Stinogel, who took the loss.

Wayne State received a solid outing from Matt Rustulka (Windsor, Ont./Riverside) in game two, as the senior right-hander surrendered just six hits and a walk in seven innings. He struck out six in his first shutout as a Warrior.

WSU jumped out to a 7-0 lead after two innings. Alex Trojan (Fenton, Mich./Hartland), who drove in five runs in the game, had two RBI hits in each of the first two frames. Andrew Ciennik (Waterford, Mich./Mott) had a sacrifice fly in the first, while RBIs from Guenther and Kyle Vesey (Brighton, Mich.) came in the second.

Trojan brought in Guenther with a sacrifice fly in the fourth, as the Warriors provided more than enough run support for Rustulka, who retired eight straight hitters to end the game.

Wayne State will briefly depart the RussMatt Invitational to take on the 14th-ranked University of Tampa on Tuesday night at 6:00. The Warriors will meet Kentucky Wesleyan and Minnesota-Crookston on Wednesday before returning to Detroit.

NOTES
A two-out double by Michael Wiseman (White Lake, Mich./Lakeland) in the fourth inning was the first hit allowed by Zwak in game one … Trojan's five RBI in game two set a career-high … he leads the team with three multiple-RBI games this season … Wayne State is 4-2 all-time against Minnesota-Duluth.