UMD baseball sweeps Bemidji State behind seven home runs, extends win streak to three

Seven home runs in 16 innings turned Thursday’s trip to Bemidji into a statement for Minnesota Duluth, which swept Bemidji State 9-8 and 9-6 at BSU Baseball Field and stretched its winning streak to three games. For a Bulldogs team fighting to climb back in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference race, the sweep moved the record to 13-26 overall and 12-15 in league play.

The opener looked decided early. Gabe Richardson and Troy Lynch hit solo home runs in the first inning, then UMD kept adding in the second as Hayden Anthony, Logan Myers and Garrett Stauffacher drove in runs to build an 8-1 lead. Bemidji State, playing its first home games of the 2026 season, answered with five runs in the third and pulled within one when Adrian Falcon launched a two-run homer in the fifth to make it 9-8.

UMD held on from there. Caden Klebba earned the win, and Brady Schornstein and Joe Gizzi closed it out in relief after the Beavers kept pressing. The final line mattered as much as the early burst: the Bulldogs had enough power to create cushion, then enough pitching to protect it when the game tightened.

The second game carried the same offensive edge, with UMD finishing the doubleheader with nine more runs and another win, 9-6, over the Beavers. Across the two games, the Bulldogs showed a version of themselves that can travel: early power, run production in the middle of the order, and just enough resilience to survive a home team’s pushback.

That is why this sweep matters beyond one box score. Road conference doubleheaders often decide whether a season keeps moving or fades, and UMD’s seven home runs pointed to real lineup depth rather than a one-game spike. Against a Bemidji State team that made both games competitive, the Bulldogs proved they could win with a fast start and still finish the job when the margin shrank.