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Tiger baseball team sweeps Hamline in the Dome

MINNEAPOLIS – The H.H.H. Metrodome in Minneapolis continued to serve as a wonderful early-season home away from home for the Dakota Wesleyan University baseball team late Sunday night and early Monday morning as the Tigers earned a two-game sweep of Hamline University on the Minnesota Twins’ former home field.

DWU scored a 6-3 win in the first game and pulled out a 3-2 victory in the second game to earn a sweep of the doubleheader that began at 10:45 p.m. With the two wins, the Tigers improved to 6-2 overall this season and 4-0 in the Metrodome after also sweeping Missouri Valley College there in early February. Hamline is now 0-4 this season.

Clayton Grimstad	Jeff Sanchez
Thomas Pickett	Ryan Santiago

The first win was a total team effort as four pitchers contributed to the victory and five different DWU hitters drove in runs. Hamline led 1-0 after three innings, but DWU tied the game in the fourth and rallied for five runs over the fifth and sixth innings to take a 6-1 lead. Hamline managed to scratch single runs in the sixth and seventh, but it wasn’t enough as the Tigers held on for the 6-3 win.

Nick Capucilli started and allowed one earned run with no hits, three walks and a strikeout over two innings. Jeff Sanchez followed and picked up the win (1-0) with three scoreless innings. Sanchez walked three and gave up one hit while keeping Hamline off the scoreboard. Patrick Dennis and Eric Boldan each worked an inning of relief, each allowing one run, to preserve the win. Dennis struck out two and Boldan struck out one.

Clayton Grimstad, Casey Solem and Nick Loera led a balanced Tiger offensive attack. Grimstad finished 1-for-3 with a run and two RBI, and his two-run home run in the fifth put DWU ahead for good. Solem was 2-for-3 with a run and an RBI and Loera was 2-for-4 with an RBI. John Chaisson was also 1-for-3 with a run and an RBI, Mario Mendoza was 1-for-2 with a run and an RBI and John Grecier was 1-for-4 with a run.

The Tigers earned the sweep when they took advantage of some Hamline miscues to rally for two runs in the bottom of the sixth to pull out the 3-2 win. Trailing 2-1, Ryan Santiago reached on an error and came around to score, and John Greciar drew a bases-loaded walk to give DWU the lead.

Dakota Wesleyan was in position to win thanks to some stellar pitching. Ethan Opsahl started and gave the Tigers five strong innings, with just two earned runs on eight hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Thomas Pickett earned the win in relief, allowing just one hit with two strikeouts over two scoreless innings.

Santiago tied the game at 1-1 with a solo home run as he finished 1-for-2 with two runs and an RBI. Solem and Greicar had the Tigers’ two RBI in the decisive sixth inning, and Grimstad walked and came around to score the winning run.

DWU has now won three games in a row, and it will take that winning streak on the road for spring break next week when it travels to Clearwater, Fla., for the 2010 Baseball Invitational. The Tigers open spring break play against Montreat College on March 15, and they will play 10 games over six days, along with an exhibition game against a team of Minnesota Twins’ minor leaguers at the team’s spring training facility in Fort Myers, Fla.