What a terrible way for the St. Cloud State baseball team to end its 1996 season — a 19-6 loss to the Gophers at Siebert Field on Tuesday.
The Huskies, who are not playoff bound after going 4-8 in the North Central Conference, did not help themselves with eight total walks during the game.
Minnesota simply took advantage of its opportunities with 18 hits and coasted to the easy victory. But for the first two innings, the game looked like it might be close.
The Huskies, who ended their Division II season 18-23, jumped out to a 4-2 lead going into the bottom of the third inning. The Gophers then scored five runs on five walks in the bottom of the frame to take the lead.
From then on, it was ugly.
St. Cloud State scored only two more runs in the game and struck out a total of 10 times. Meanwhile Minnesota added 12 runs to its lead. In the seventh the Gophers had 12 batters visit the plate and eight of them scored.
Leading Minnesota offensively was freshman Robb Quinlan, who had a triple, double and a single. The Maplewood native was taken out of the game for a pinch hitter and was not able to attempt to hit for the cycle.
Still, he was one of four Gophers hitters who had three runs batted in — shortstop Steve Huls, catcher Bryan Guse and second baseman Eric Welter all joined him in that feat.
Senior Mike Mahady was inserted in the lineup to pinch hit in the fourth inning. The right fielderusually is restricted to right field duties, but went 2 for 3 with two runs scored.
St. Cloud State’s only highlight was freshman Tim Boland, who hit his team-leading ninth home run of the season over the right-center field fence. That was the only homer of the game for either team.
The only bad news for Minnesota was freshman Kai Freeman’s performance as the starting pitcher. Freeman got hit hard in his four innings of work and allowed all but one of the Huskies runs.
Ted Zrust and Bob DeWitt came in to pitch later in the game, however, and pitched a combined four innings with seven strikeouts and no walks.
Minnesota will play its final non-conference game of the year Thursday against St. Olaf at Siebert Field. The first pitch will be thrown at 7 p.m.

GAME SUMMARY

St. Cloud State 121 100 100 — 6 11 3
Minnesota 115 021 81x — 19 18 1
Freeman, Zrust (5), DeWitt (8), Leatherman (9) and Guse; Boll, Scully (3), Winter (3), Oelschlager (6), Klinnert (7), Vollan (7) and McDonough. W – Zrust (3-0). L – Boll (1-2). HR – SCSU, Boland. 3B – Min, Quinlan. 2B – SCSU, Loesch 2, Cano, Rogness, Turck, Boland; Min, Quinlan, Guse, Huls, Skovran. T-2:52. A-454.

Gophers batting statistics
AB R H RBI
Keeney 4 3 2 0
Groebner 1 0 0 0
Huls 3 2 2 3
Guse 5 1 1 3
Smith 4 2 2 0
Skovran 1 1 1 0
McDermott 2 2 0 0
Hankinson 1 0 0 0
Selander 2 1 1 1
Mahady 3 2 2 0
Quinlan 4 2 3 3
Stein 2 1 1 1
Griffin 3 1 2 0
Welter 4 1 1 3