A Tanner Simons’ three-run homer helped the Wildcats baseball team to a 2-2 series tie with University of Minnesota-Duluth this past weekend in Duluth.

WSC lost its first game 4-3 in 10 innings, followed by a 5-1 win on Friday. On Saturday, the Wildcats started off with a 3-2 win, then dropped the final game 7-2.

“Besides game four, we kept coming from behind,” Assistant Coach Kirk Clark said. “We played a complete game in game two. Overall our pitchers did an excellent job and gave us a chance to win.”

Bobby St. Pierre pitched nine innings in game one before being relieved in the tenth.

True freshman Hunter Weinhoff pitched the entirety of game two, giving up five hits.

In the second inning of game one, David Janes scored on a Peyton Barnes sacrifice fly for the first run of the game. In the third inning, Aaron Krier scored on a solo homer to give the Wildcats a 2-0 lead.

UMD answered with two runs in the third inning and another in the fourth to make the score 3-2. WSC tied it up when Krier scored on Simons’ RBI to tie the game.

The tie remained until the 10th inning when UMD’s Marco Lucarelli bunted in Eric Yachinich, handing WSC a 4-3 loss.

WSC started off strong in the second game as it raced out to a 3-0 lead.

Up 3-1 in the fourth inning, Petersen and Barnes scored thanks to errors on a Simons double. The Wildcats went on to win 5-1.

In game three, WSC trailed 2-0 in the sixth inning with Tanden Dorn and Krier on base. Simons then hit a three-run homer to take the lead 3-2. The Wildcats shut out UMD for the rest of the game for the win.

Starting pitcher Aiden Breedlove and reliever Kyle Kennebeck combined for a four-hitter on the game.

“We couldn’t get much going until Tanner had that hit,” Clark said. “He came up big and our pitchers used the momentum to shut out Duluth for the win.”

To begin the fourth game, WSC’s Cody Jenkins scored on a solo homer in the first inning, followed by Janes scoring on a Jake Lemar sacrifice fly in the second.

After that WSC had just one hit for the remainder of the game and surrendered seven runs to UMD, losing 7-2.

“The last two weeks we’ve been on the road a lot,” Clark said. “Before Duluth, we were in Bismarck (University of Mary). A lot of traveling takes a toll on our guys.”

WSC is now 13-17 overall and 8-10 in the NSIC, while UMD is 14-14 overall and 9-7 in the NSIC.

“It’s tough to win a series on the road,” Clark said. “We pitched well, but we need to hit better. Our guys need to do a better job of playing all eight hours.”