Index of Sports Press Releases

Mar. 13, 2008

Twelfth-inning bunt gets DWU past Briar Cliff
Leah Rado • The Daily Republic

DWU’s Zach Schmidt dives back to first and beats the tag of Briar Cliff first baseman Jacob Olivas. The Tigers won 6-5 in 12 innings. (Leah Rado/Republic)

The Dakota Wesleyan University baseball team only had two hits after the ninth inning Wednesday, and both were bunts.

The Tigers added two more hits to their score sheet in the extra three innings. Of those two hits, it was Zach Huston’s bunt in the bottom of the 12th inning that was the most important for DWU.

Huston’s bunt bounced out to Briar Cliff pitcher Trent Schneider, who threw the ball just out of reach of the Chargers’ first baseman. The wild throw allowed Kyle Isaacson to plate the winning run in the Tigers’ 6-5, extra-inning victory over Briar Cliff at Drake Field.

The Tigers are now 3-5 overall and 1-0 in the Great Plains Athletic Conference.

“Bunting is kind of the catalyst of our team’s offense,” DWU head coach Adam Neisius said. “If we can bunt we can pull the corners in on defense and hopefully get the ball by. It shortens the field. When we bunt (Briar Cliff) has to make plays, and they didn’t and that’s why they lost.”

The Chargers had the chance to win the game in nine innings as they held a 5-2 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. But Schneider hit Mark Wood and walked Huston to start the inning. Sean Worley struck out swinging, but Jered Betancourt was hit by a pitch to load the bases and bring up Terry Lundeen. Lundeen hit a short grounder to first for the second out, but Wood scored to bring the Tigers within two.

Jake Roy hit an RBI single to bring DWU within one, and Betancourt tied the game when Josh Pritt laced a single out into left field. Sean Harey came to the plate with the winning run on second base, but he grounded out to second to end the rally and send the game into extra innings.

“You’ve got to have (lead-off walks), especially when you’re down by three in the last inning,” Neisius said of his team’s late rally. “Briar Cliff was struggling with controling pitching, and we were waiting until we got a strike anyway. Those are pressure at-bats and they have got to get up there and do anything humanly possible to get on base, then we have to get a hit somewhere or a passed ball or an error. We got lucky, but I’d rather get lucky than nothing.”

Both teams had the opportunity to end the game before the 12th inning, but neither could capitalize. The Chargers stranded runners on third in all three of the extra innings, but DWU was able to keep control of each situation and end the threat.

The Tigers weren’t able to keep Briar Cliff quiet in the game’s early innings. The Chargers hit a sacrifice fly in the first inning to score Chris Davis and get an early lead, but Isaacson scored after a wild throw to first base in the second inning to tie things up.

The Chargers grabbed the lead again when Jeremy Majeres hit a double to send David Callahan and Matt Sauter home. Briar Cliff notched another run in the top of the fifth for a 4-2 lead. Worley scored from third on a wild pitch in the fifth inning to keep DWU within two, but Briar Cliff added one more run in the eighth off an RBI single by Davis.

The Tigers struggled to hit against the Chargers’ Charlie Benz, who gave up just two hits and struck out three batters in eight innings of work. Schneider took the loss for Briar Cliff.

“When their starting pitcher goes eight innings, we’re not doing something right,” Neisius said. “We had two hits through nine innings and they were bunts. We didn’t do very well against him. We didn’t strike out, we just didn’t hit.”

Chris Dennis got his first start of the season for the Tigers and gave up three earned runs and struck out four in 5.2 innings. Thomas Pickett gave up two more runs and struck out two, and Phil Johnson earned the win in the final four innings of work.

“We have to throw more strikes as a staff, and if we do that we’ll play defense,” Neisius said. “I thought Chris wasn’t that good, and he’d probably tell you the same thing, but if you got out and only give up three runs on a bad day, that’s keeping us in the baseball game and that’s all you can ask for.

“Pickett did a great job, he’s a machine he just comes in and throws strikes. And I don’t think Phil was going to let us lose. He had good stuff, especially after pitching (Tuesday).”

DWU next game is scheduled for Saturday Dickinson State University in Rapid City at an undetermined time.