Baseball 3/23/02 -- Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) 15, Augsburg 3

GAME BOXSCORE

FORT MYERS, Fla. (3/23/02) -- Pounding out 12 hits and taking advantage of seven Augsburg College errors, Mount Vernon Nazarene College (Ohio) blitzed the Auggies 15-3 in Augsburg's opening game at the Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic baseball tournament on Saturday afternoon at Terry Park.

Sending 11 batters to the plate, Mount Vernon Nazarene scored eight runs in the decisive third inning to improve to 8-2 on the season. Augsburg drops to 3-8, having lost its last four games in a row.

Eleven different Cougars had hits in the game, with Eddie Wright going 2-for-2 with two RBI. Mark Coulter had a run-scoring double in the fifth inning.

Pat Marsh (Sr., Crystal, Minn./Robbinsdale Armstrong HS) led the Auggies with two hits in three at-bats, scoring a run. Nick Rathmann (Jr., Waseca, Minn.) and Collin Nash (So., Rochester, Minn./Mayo HS) had run-scoring singles in the fifth inning.

Nick Schwartz pitched a complete-game victory for Mount Vernon Nazarene, striking out three in seven innings of work. Augsburg used four pitchers in the game, with starter Matt Topp (Sr., South St. Paul, Minn.) getting tagged for the loss.

Augsburg committed four errors in the third inning, leading to six unearned runs of the eight the Cougars scored in the frame. Just four of the Cougars' 15 runs were earned.

Augsburg returns to action in the Gene Cusic Classic on Sunday (3/24), taking on Oberlin (Ohio) at 10 a.m.

Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) 15, Augsburg 3
Augsburg -- 000 120 0 -- 3-7-7
M.V.Nazarene -- 018 024 x -- 15-12-2
Topp, Golnitz (3), Schmidt (3), Bauer (6) and Gross, Knafla (6); Schwartz and Sichina. WP-Schwartz, LP-Topp. T-1:63. A-20.