Index of Sports Press Releases

Mar. 24, 2008

DWU baseball swept at Midland Lutheran
The Daily Republic

FREMONT, Neb. — The Dakota Wesleyan baseball team was swept in a doubleheader Saturday at Midland Lutheran College. After splitting on Friday at Doane, the Tigers lost three out of four games on their weekend trip to Iowa.

In the first game on Saturday, Midland Lutheran took advantage of two hit batters in the seventh inning to break a 3-3 tie and beat the Tigers 4-3. With one out, Tim Jacoby singled, and after DWU pitcher Chris Baker hit two consecutive batters to load the bases, Phil Johnson came in for the Tigers and gave up the game-winning, RBI single to Midland Lutheran’s Nolan Koehn. It was the second consecutive game the Tigers lost in the bottom of the seventh inning.

“I’d have been happy with splitting on the weekend and going 2-2,” DWU head coach Adam Neisius said. “But since we went 1-3, we have ourselves a big uphill battle now.”

The Tigers also lost Saturday’s second game, this time by a score of 6-1. MCC took advantage of the momentum for their first game win to score three unearned runs in the first two innings of the second game and claim a 3-0 lead against Tigers’ starter Corey Marek.

The Tigers answered with a run in the top of the fourth when Kyle Isaacson hit his third homer of the weekend for the Tigers. However, it wasn’t nearly enough against the Warriors, who scored three more runs in the fifth and sixth innings to put the game out of reach.

“We didn’t execute well offensively,” Neisius said. “We can’t sit back and wait for somebody to hit the ball over the fence. We have to bunt, move up runners and make productive outs, or we’re going to get beat. I think we hit into six double plays.”

Six different players had hits for the Tigers in game two, but none of them had more than one. Marek picked up the loss after going six innings, allowing nine hits and three earned runs. Mike Budine went the distance for MCC, allowing six hits and only one earned run.

In looking to rebound from a tough, walk-off loss Friday against Doane, the Tigers gave up two early runs in the bottom of the first inning of game one on Saturday.

But DWU answered with three runs over the next two innings to take a 3-2 lead. The Tigers scored two runs in the top of the second on an RBI double from Terry Lundeen and a sacrifice fly by Jake Roy. The Tigers added another run in the top of the third when Sean Heary homered.

However, the Tigers were unable to scratch across any more runs as MCC starter Matt Trejo only allowed two DWU hits the rest of the way, after allowing seven in the first three innings. Kirk Liesemeyer came on in relief for MCC to record the final out of the seventh inning and help Trejo out of a jam, and ended up picking up the win after Koehn plated the winning run with a single in the seventh.

The Tigers were led offensively by Roy, who was 2-for-4 with an RBI, Heary, who was 2-for-4 with an RBI, and Mark Wood, who was 2-for-3. Baker went 6.1 innings for DWU and picked up the loss, falling to 1-2. He struck out 10 Warrior hitters and didn’t record a walk.

“Baker threw a great game,” Neisius said. “He did exactly what a No. 1 is supposed to do. He kept us in the game. Corey Marek threw a good game too. Both guys did enough to give us a chance to win.”

Next up for the Tigers will be a doubleheader at Northern State on Wednesday. DWU already beat the Wolves 17-7 and 6-1 at home. However, the Tigers are 2-9 on the road this season and 4-0 at home.

“We’re going to try a couple things with our lineup and see if we can’t get some things changed around,” Neisius said. “I don’t care where you go, it’s tough to win on the road, so we’ll have to go up there and play well.”

The Tigers will then return home to play conference doubleheaders against Northwestern and Nebraska Wesleyan on Friday and Sunday. The four games will be crucial for the Tigers, who sit at 2-3 in the GPAC standings.

“We’re going to try to get through next weekend here, and if we can take care of business at home, then we don’t have to play with sense of urgency,” Neisius said. “If we don’t, every game will be a postseason mentality game.”