Index of Sports Press Releases

April 6, 2008

Tigers split with Dordt
Matt Higgins • The Daily Republic

Dakota Wesleyan University’s baseball doubleheader against Dordt College Friday at Drake Field served a microcosm for the Tigers’ season thus far. It was inconsistent.

DWU fell behind early in game one, but the Tigers fought to stay in the game, and eventually erupted for 11 runs in the fifth and sixth innings to invoke the mercy rule in a 13-3 victory.

However, DWU (11-10, 4-4 GPAC) got a taste of its own medicine as Dordt (7-12, 4-6 GPAC) rallied for two runs in the top of the seventh to steal a 3-2 win and split the crucial GPAC doubleheader.

“We tend to let teams stay in baseball games, and that’s exactly what we did today,” said Tigers’ head coach Adam Neisius. “We’re really not very consistent and that’s why we’re a .500 team right now.”

The Defenders held a slim lead throughout most of the opening game after getting to DWU starter Chris Dennis for a three early runs, but Dennis buckled down and kept the Tigers within striking distance.

“(Dennis) was having trouble finding the zone early, and when you have to throw fastballs, you’re going to get hit,” Neisius said. “Chris kept his composure and did a good job and gave us chance.”

DWU took advantage of that chance in the bottom of the fifth, when it pushed across three runs to pull ahead, 5-3. Then the Tigers exploded for eight runs in the bottom of the sixth. Ryan Santiago started the rally with a pinch-hit, two-run homerun to the opposite field, and Kyle Isaacson ended the game with a absolute bomb of a grand slam that finally landed in the parking lot beyond the left-field fence.

Neisius said that offensive surge came after his club knocked Dordt’s starter, Alex Jansen, out of the game. “There’s not a lot of GPAC teams that have strong bullpens,” he said. “If you can get to a team’s bullpen you probably have a chance.”

Usual starter Chris Baker earned the win in game one after he came on to relieve Dennis in the fifth inning. Baker only allowed a walk in 1.2 near-perfect innings. “We knew if we could get through four, we’d have a good chance with Baker coming out of the pen. We wanted to get him a little work and he did a good job. He knows how to get outs.”

Josh Pritt was 3-for-4 with two RBI in game one, Isaacson was 2-for-3 with his grand slam and Mark Wood was 2-for-3 with two runs.

The Tigers looked like they had a sweep in hand as they held a 2-1 lead heading into the top of the seventh, but Dordt was able to put together a handful of key hits around a crucial DWU error to pull out a 3-2 win.

“You’d think you’d try to carry that momentum over into the second game,” Neisius said. “This club has not learned that once game one is over, it’s over. It’s not like a team is going to lay down.”

Dordt started the seventh with a single and a sacrifice bunt to get the tying run into scoring position with one out. Tigers’ pitcher Thomas Pickett got the next batter to hit a grounder to short, but an error by Pritt put runners at first and third. The Defenders tied the game when the next batter singled, and with two outs, they got one more clutch hit to plate the go-ahead run. DWU only managed a harmless walk in its half of the seventh and had to settle with the split.

“It was a huge error,” Neisius said. “You hate to say a play cost us the game, but it sure didn’t win us a game. …Everybody tries to say, ‘Alright, let’s get then next guy,’ but you can just see it in the pitcher that just got a ground ball, and in the catcher. There’s no doubt about (the effect the error had).

Pickett took the loss after working the final 2.1 innings in relief of starter Corey Marek, who only allowed one run on three hits in 4.2 innings of work. Marek walked two and struck out four and Pickett had two strikeouts.

Jake Roy, Sean Heary and Isaacson each had two hits in the loss, but the Tigers could never get the bit hit against Dordt starter Daryl Visser, who worked all seven innings to get the win.

“I think the second guy had a pretty good two-seam fastball that got in on some hands,” Neisius said. “His slider was OK. I don’t think we were real aggressive early in the count. …We hit a lot of pitcher’s pitches. We didn’t hit a lot of hitter’s pitches.”

The Tigers won’t have long to regroup. They have another GPAC doubleheader today against Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m.

“They better forget about it pretty quick because we get on the bus at 9 a.m. and we play at 2 p.m. and that might be a make-or-break doubleheader for our season,” Neisius said. “I hope they have short memories.”