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KENOSHA NEWS STAFF

The UW-Parkside baseball team believed it split with St. Cloud (Minn.) State Sunday morning at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

The NCAA may believe otherwise.

After dropping the first game 14-7, Parkside was leading the nightcap 6-1 with one out to go in the fifth inning when the game was halted because of time.

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The game would have been official through five. NCAA rules say that a game can’t be suspended because of time, according to UWP coach Joel Weaver. Because of that, the game was ruled a no contest.

“There’s a possibility we might be able to continue that second game,” Weaver said. “We have to get a ruling from the NCAA but in our minds we won one and lost one today.”

The opener featured a football score in a football venue.

St. Cloud scored seven runs in the top of the eighth inning to complete the three-game, series-opening sweep of the Rangers.

That outburst came a half inning after Parkside scored three times to forge a 7-7 tie.

Paul Pulera’s single scored John Hasser and Michael Pena to pull the Rangers to within one. The Rangers tied it when Tyler Gieseking’s sacrifice fly scored Zach O’Haver, who was pinch-running for Ben Korman.

St. Cloud plated seven runs in the eighth off losing pitcher Josh Hudnut. Only two of the runs were earned. The freshman came on in relief in the previous inning and escaped a bases-loaded, no-out jam by getting a strikeout and a double play.

“That was a huge momentum shift,” Weaver said. “Josh pitched extremely well (Saturday) and we wanted to see how he would bounce back.

“It was a huge momentum shift that carried over into the next inning. For a true freshman, he showed a lot of heart and guts.”

Parkside trailed 6-1 after 31/2 innings but got back in the game with two in the fourth and one in the fifth before the big seventh. Pulera drove in one run and the other scored on a double play in the fourth. In the fifth, Korman drove in Dave Lojeski with a single.

St. Cloud’s decisive eighth featured five hits and two Parkside errors. The Rangers went down 1-2-3 in the eighth.