ST. CLOUD, Minn. – Just a few hours after defeating No. 3-seed Emporia State in the opening round of the 2015 Central Region Tournament, the Southern Arkansas baseball team took on No. 2-seed Minnesota State-Mankato in a winner's bracket matchup, but SAU would ultimately fall to MSU-Mankato by a score of 7-2 on Friday evening at Joe Faber Field in St. Cloud.
 
With the loss, the Muleriders (40-17) will play in an elimination game against top-seeded and tournament host St. Cloud State with a scheduled first-pitch time of 35 minutes following the completion of Henderson State and Minnesota State-Mankato as those two are set to play at 10 a.m.
 
In Friday night's game, things couldn't have gotten off to a much better start for the Muleriders as SAU starter Colton Strother struck out the side in the top of the first while Billy Germaine launched his 12th homerun of the season, this one a two-run shot, in the bottom half of the inning to give SAU a 2-0 lead.
 
The Mavericks (43-7) would come back in the top of the second inning and cut the Mulerider lead in half on a RBI groundout to Chase Harvey at second base. In the next inning, MSU-Mankato took a one-run lead on a two-out, two-RBI single through the right side.
 
The Mavericks then went on to add single runs in the fifth and sixth innings while plating two additional runs of insurance in the seventh to account for their seven runs in the contest