Athletic News

Aberdeen, SD - In the final two Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) baseball games of the 2009 season were played against Presentation College on Saturday under sunny skies and 60 degree weather.  The Storm came out with their most complete game offensively and defensively in the first game of the double-header winning 8-4 behind a complete game for junior starting pitcher Rocky Donatelle who gave up 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits in 7 innings of work.  He had solid defense played behind him all day keeping the surging bats of the Saints at bay with outstanding catches in the outfield by centerfielder Steve Boger and a double-play in the infield.  The Storm scored the first 3 runs of the game as they scored in the top of the first inning on a 2 out single by senior John Patnode that scored fellow senior Jake Jarvis from third.  The Storm added their second and third runs in the top of the third inning on a one out single by freshman Isaiah Jensen scoring Jarvis and catcher Nick Garrard to make the score 3-0 through three innings.  The Saints got one run back in the bottom of the fourth inning before the Storm added four runs in the top of the fifth inning with three of those runs coming off the bat of freshman Isaiah Jensen's first career home run extending the lead to 7-1.  The Storm would add an additional run in the top of the seventh making the score 8-1 but the Saints would not go quitely as a lead off double would score on a ground out to shortstop and after a two out single Josh Cunningham would hit a two run home run to close the score to 8-4 before the Storm would record the third out to end the game.  The Storm would run into a dominate performance by the Saints starting pitcher Dustin Pickrel who threw a complete game surrendering only three runs (two earned) while cooling off a Storm team that combined for 28 hits in the first two games of this series.  The Storm struggled early giving up five early runs and being blanked until scoring single runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.  The final score would end up 12-3 in favor of the Saints.  The Storm were led by several players who had multiple hits over the two games on the day highlighted by a 4-7 effort from senior left fielder Jake Jarvis and senior designated hitter Winston Mullet who went 3-7.  Catcher Nick Garrard went 3-6 on the afternoon and threw out a runner attempting to steal.  The Storm finish out the 2009 season on Wednesday afternoon in non-conference action at Watertown's Highland Park against North Central University beginning at 4:00 p.m. playing two 7 inning games.