MEN’S COLLEGE HOCKEY:

--St. Cloud State’s late-season struggles continued on Friday as they let a game slip away and fell to the University of MN-Duluth 6-5 in overtime.  The two teams traded early goals but SCSU would break a 2-2 tie on a goal by Tyson Gross about midway through the 2^nd period and then get up by two on a power play goal by Kyler Kupka at about the 11:00 mark in the 2^nd. UMD would storm back in the 3^rd period scoring 3 times to the Huskies 1 to send the game to OT. Ben Steeves would score for the Bulldogs just seven seconds into the extra frame to win it. The two teams will close out the regular season on Saturday.

-- The University of Minnesota opened the Big Ten Tournament with a 5-1 win over Penn State.  The Nittany Lions hung with the Gophers early and the game was knotted at 1 after the first period.  The game stayed close with the Gophers taking a 2-1 lead into the 2^nd intermission on a goal by Jimmy Snuggerud. The U would then pull away in the final period scoring three times. Rhett Pitlick led the team with two goals. The Gophers will look to advance by taking Penn State down on Saturday in their 2^nd game of the best-of-three series.

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 JUNIOR HOCKEY:

-- The St. Cloud Norsemen beat the Austin Bruins 3-2. Kyle Miller, Michael Coleman, and Louis Wehmann all scored for St. Cloud. The two teams face off again on Saturday.

-- The Granite City Lumberjacks fell 2-0 to the Mason City Toros in game one of their playoff series on Friday. The Jacks will need to win on Saturday to force a game 3 on Sunday.

COLLEGE SOFTBALL

--St. Cloud State swept their last two games in THE Spring Games in Florida to finish the tournament 7-1. SCSU would beat Quincy in game 1 by the score of 9-1. They were led by Reese Holzhueter who went 2 for 3 with 2 RBI, and 3 runs scored. In game two, the Huskies would take down Clarion 7-2. Justyce Porter threw 3.2 innings of shutout ball with two strikeouts and two walks.  Next up is Missouri Southern on Saturday.

--The University of Minnesota beat Longwood 6-1 to improve to 12-9 on the year. Nanci Valencia went 3 for 4 with a triple, double, and 2 RBI and Morgan DeBord went 2 for 3 with a triple. The two teams will play again on Saturday.

COLLEGE BASEBALL

--St. John’s University swept Baruch in their doubleheader on Friday. The Johnnies took game 1 by a score of 5-1. St. John’s took game 2 by a score of 11-3. Joe Becker and Rodney Erickson led the team with 3 RBI each.

--The Gophers were victorious against Gonzaga 8-5 on Friday. The U was down 4-1 after five but scored 2 in the 6^th, 2 in the 7^th, and 3 in the 9^th to power themselves to the win. Ike Mezzenga hit his fourth home run in the last four games and had 3 RBI to lead the Gophers.

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