Sagan Osborne | Dickinson State Sports Information Director

TUCSON, Ariz. – Nathaniel Jilek hit his first career home run, and Luke Clinton and Avery Bogner collected their first career hits, but the Blue Hawks fell to NCAA Division II Southwest Minnesota State 18-8 on Monday morning.

The Mustangs came out swinging in the early going, building a 6-0 lead in the first two innings thanks to a combination of soft and hard-hit balls. They added five more runs in the top of the fifth, and another in the top of the sixth, to take a commanding 12-0 lead.

The Blue Hawks finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth inning when a Carlos Molina Jr. walk, a Clay Prell single, and a Brendan Schneiter hit by pitch loaded the bases with one out. Luke Clinton hit a ground ball to the right side that was mishandled by the SMSU second baseman allowing a run to score, and Prell later scored on a ball thrown into right field on an attempted back pick to first base.

After SMSU added six insurance runs in the seventh inning, the milestones hits started pouring in. Bogner led off the inning with a hard single to right. He scored on a two-out single by John Hudson, and after Schneiter walked, Clinton drove a single to right field to score Hudson and Alex Stephens scored to make it 18-5. One batter later, Jilek greeted a new SMSU pitcher with his first career home run, a towering drive just over the left field fence for the final DSU runs of the game.