Index of Sports Press Releases

April 7, 2008

DWU baseball team gets swept by Morningside
The Daily Republic

SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Playing a doubleheader Saturday for the second day in a row, the Dakota Wesleyan baseball team had a chance to move all the way in to fourth place in the Great Plains Athletic Conference with a sweep at Morningside.

But instead, it was Morningside that came up with the sweep, knocking the Tigers (11-12 overall, 4-6 GPAC) all the way back into a four-way tie for ninth place in the conference. Morningside took game one, 7-5, and won game two, 5-3.

Morningside (14-11, 6-6) jumped all over starting pitcher Freddy Janssen and the Tigers early in game one on Saturday, scoring three runs in the second, one in the third and two more in the fifth to take a 6-0 lead after five innings. As has been the trend lately, the Tigers were forced to work from behind for much of the game.

Once again, the Tigers bats got going late, getting the team back in the game. Sean Worley’s RBI single in the sixth finally put the Tigers on the board, but the Tigers gave the run right back in the bottom in the inning.

Trailing 7-1 entering the final inning, Wesleyan made a run at Morningside, pulling within one on Worley’s two-out, two RBI single. However, the Tigers’ rally came up short when Mark Wood lined out to third to end the game. Jake Roy and Josh Pritt also had sacrifice flies in the inning for DWU.

Worley led the Tigers’ offense in game one, going 2-for-4 with three RBI. Janssen picked up the loss to drop to 3-2 after allowing six runs — five earned — in five innings of work.

Another slow start hurt the Tigers in game two as well. Morningside scored an unearned run in the first inning, and after a Zach Huston error with two outs and nobody on in the second inning, Morningside scored three more unearned runs to take a 4-0 lead after two innings.

Again Wesleyan began chipping away, but the early deficit proved to be too big. The Tigers cut the lead in half in the top of third on RBI singles from Josh Pritt and Worley, but the only run the Tigers could muster the rest of the way came on Roy’s RBI triple in the fourth.

Worley again led the Tigers offensively in the second game, going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Robert Stevens picked up the loss, dropping to 1-3. He allowed five runs in five innings, though only one of the runs was earned due to a pair of costly Tiger errors.

The Tigers return to action Tuesday for a home doubleheader against GPAC frontrunner Northwestern College.