Index of Sports Press Releases

Mar. 12, 2008

DWU baseball team wins home opener 12-0 over Dakota State
Matt Bunke • The Daily Republic

Dakota Wesleyan third baseman Zach Huston fields a slow roller on the run during the Tigers’ home-opener. (Matt Bunke/Republic)

The weather finally cooperated with the Dakota Wesleyan baseball team Tuesday, and for one of the first times this season, so did the Tigers’ bats.

DWU (2-5) erupted for 12 runs on nine hits — both season highs — and got a combined shutout from Chris Baker, Freddy Janssen and Phil Johnson as the Tigers beat Dakota State (1-4) 12-0 Tuesday at Drake Field in the team’s home opener.

But as hot as the Tiger bats were on Tuesday, it might have been the defense that was most encouraging to head coach Adam Neisius. A week after commiting nine errors in a 13-5 loss at No. 6 Oklahoma City, the Tigers didn’t commit a single error in Tuesday’s win. They also threw out a runner at the plate from right field and turned three double plays.

“It was night and day between last Wednesday and today,” Neisius said after the game. “That’s encouraging. If we start playing some defense, we’re going to scratch enough runs to win some games. …We need to play defense like that.”

Of course, the Tigers’ pitching didn’t hurt matters either. Baker started the game and lasted five innings before giving way to Janssen. He walked the first two batters of the game, gave up six hits and allowed at least one runner in each of his five innings, but always seemed to get key outs when he needed them.

“It’s been a nightmare just trying to get games in,” Neisius said. “Baker hadn’t pitched in a month, and he started out a little shaky. But he made nice pitches to batters in the right situations.”

Jansen also put runners in scoring position in two of his three innings — including a bases loaded, one out jam in the seventh — but a pair of double plays kept the Trojans off the board.

“We played defense, and that’s what we didn’t do last week,” Neisius said. “When we pitch and play defense, we’re going to win some games. That’s what we did (Tuesday).

While the defense and pitching were crucial in the win, the biggest story was the DWU offense. After averaging only 2.8 runs per game through the first six games, the Tigers jumped out with four unearned runs in the first inning.

With the bases loaded after two hit batters to open the game and a bloop single from Sean Heary, Kyle Isaacson hit a ground ball to the left side that was snared by a diving David Morgan, the Trojans’ pitcher. However, his throw to the plate was low and snuck away from the catcher, allowing two runs to score. Jared Betancourt added a two-out, two-RBI single later in the inning on a smash that took a bad bounce over the shoulder of the DSU third baseman.

Isaacson tripled to right in the third and scored on a groundout by Zach Huston, and the Tigers added two more in the fourth. Jake Ray had an RBI triple and Josh Pritt had a sacrifice fly to centerfield.

The big inning for DWU came in the seventh, when the Tigers sent 10 hitters to the plate. Scott Schmidt opened with a double, Isaacson hit a bloop single and Sean Worley walked to load the bases. Huston followed with a two-run single, Mark Wood added an RBI single later in the inning, and Brandon Weber had a sacrifice fly to deep right field.

“We’ve been just dying as coaches waiting to break out, and this was it,” Neisius said. “We talked to the hitters. We swung the bat pretty well down in Oklahoma City, but we just said we needed one breakout day, and we’re going to hopefully get rolling, and today was it.”

Isaacson went 2-for-3 with three runs to lead the Tigers, and Huston was 1-for-2 with three RBI. Baker picked up the win for the Tigers and Martin had the loss for DSU.

DWU will be back in action today at 3 p.m. at Drake Field. The Tigers host Briar Cliff in the Great Plains Athletic Conference Opener.