Huskies Dominate Pair of Home Doubleheaders

St. Cloud State was visited by Southwest Minnesota State and Concordia St. Paul over the April 5th and 6th weekend and handled both opponents with ease. The Huskies finished with a weekend run differential of 31-4 and never truly struggled over a weekend that saw them tie their win mark from all of last season with 30. St. Cloud State had multiple star performances but Emma Eickhoff stands above all the rest. She started one game against each opponent and finished with ten innings pitched and only one earned run. Including a five inning shutout against Concordia in which she only allowed one hit.

“She can do anything she wants with the ball,” said catcher Morgan Honeycutt of Eickhoff’s pitching.

But it was Macey Clark who took pitching responsibilities in the first game of the weekend Saturday vs Southwest. She dominated throughout, pitching all seven innings and allowing the Mustangs only four hits on her way to a shutout.

“She has a great rise ball and a very good changeup,” said Honeycutt.

These pitches were on full display and the Mustangs simply could not catch up. As for the St. Cloud offense that kicked off in the second inning with sophomore Hannah Harms first career home run. That 1-0 lead held until the fourth when the Huskies exploded for four runs, with RBI’s going to Bethany Weiss, Bree Beck, and Kaylee Collins. Weiss also scored on an error and the Huskies cruised to a 5-0 victory to start the weekend.

In the second matchup of the day, the Huskies pitching staff continued to be the star of the show as previously mentioned Emma Eickhoff was in control throwing for five innings and allowing just a single run.

Offensively, the Huskies again put up a four run inning this time in the third inning. Starting off, Grace Frechette hit a double with Beck on second and Reese Holzhueter on first which sent Bree Beck home from second and got Holzhueter to third. Maggie Fitzgerald would single to get Holzhueter safe for a second Huskies score, and a Brooke Holmes double scored Frechette. Finally Bethany Weiss scored Fitzgerald on a groundout. That inning gave the Huskies the 4-0 advantage and they never looked back winning 5-1 to complete the sweep over the Mustangs.

Then on Sunday, the Huskies faced their first deficit of the weekend due to a first inning two run home run by Sydney Pelzer of the Golden Bears, but the adversity was handled well.

The Huskies responded quickly with a sacrifice fly by Maggie Fitzgerald scoring Holzhueter in the bottom of the first to cut the lead in half. That score held until the fourth when Brooke Holmes hit her team leading seventh home run of the season, also scoring Grace Dahmen to give the Huskies the 3-2 advantage.

Later in the fourth with Hannah Harms and Kaylee Collins aboard, Reese Holzhueter smacked a triple to extend the lead to 5-2 after four innings. The Huskies put together another four run inning in the fifth dominating the middle portion of the contest to win the Sunday opener 10-3. Reese Holzhueter was the undeniable MVP of this game going 4-4 with two RBI’s.

Somehow after all this success the Huskies saved their best for last. Emma Eickhoff threw the entirety of the matchup that only went five innings as Eickhoff shut the Golden Bears down, and the offense for St. Cloud was dynamite. Two runs in the first, six runs in the second, and another three runs in the third made for no let up in any part of the Huskies lineup.

St. Cloud State claimed victory at 11-0 after five innings. Standouts included Maggie Fitzgerald who finished 2-3 with four RBI’s, and Bethany Weiss who finished 2-2 with two RBI’s. But it was a full team effort with Sydney Roe also hitting 2-3 and Morgan Honeycutt going 2-2 it’s much harder to find a Husky that didn’t have a great day.

In a season that St. Cloud has looked so good in, it’s still hard to find a weekend where they’ve looked better than they did this past weekend. Brooke Holmes, and Morgan Honeycutt have both talked about the team keeping up the momentum and level of play they captured early on in the season. With performances like these they aren’t just talking the talk, they are walking the walk.