DUBUQUE, Iowa – The University of Dubuque baseball team continues to make their games as interesting as possible, splitting the opening doubleheader with Central College on Friday. The Dutch would take game one 8-7 before UD would return the favor in game two with an 8-7 win of their own.
Game One
In a wild first game of the series, it was the Central bats coming up clutch late to send the Spartans to a 8-7 defeat in game one. The Dutch came out of the gates swinging, recording five hits in the first inning on their way to a 3-0 lead.
UD recorded their first hit of the game in the bottom of the third with a
Quincy Bryant single to center. After Bryant swept second base,
Jake Cekander sent a flair into right center to get the Spartans on the board.
Kellen Mitchell followed up with a double down the right field line to set the stage for a big inning for the Spartans. The next four batters in
Cole DeStefanis,
Jordan Goldstein,
Colton Pfeifer and
Max Snowden would deliver RBI base hits for the Spartans to flip the score to 5-3 in their favor through three, while chasing the Central starter.
The Spartans added a sixth run in the bottom of the fifth with a Pfeifer RBI double down the right field line for his second RBI of the game. However, the Dutch would come up with another big inning in the sixth, piecing together six hits on their way to a four spot to regain the lead. UD would not go down without any drama, getting a pinch-hit RBI triple from
Hunter Martindale with two down in the seventh, but that tying run was left stranded on third and the Spartans would drop game one.
On a day with the wind blowing out, the teams combined for 26 hits in game one. The three through six hitters in UD's lineup (Mitchell, DeStefanis, Goldstein and Pfiefer) would all record two hits. After two straight wins on the mound,
Jordan Nelson picked up the loss, surrendering eight runs over six innings.
Game Two
Central doubled the amount of hits the Spartans had in game two, but the Spartans took advantage of Dutch miscues and came up with timely hits when needed to grab an 8-7 win of their own and splitting the first of two doubleheaders between the teams.
In game two, it was UD racing out to the quick 3-0 over the first two innings and the Dutch storming back in the third with three runs of their own. With the Spartans trailing 4-3, the Dutch would get two quick outs in the sixth but quickly lost command of the zone, walking three straight Spartans to load the bases.
After a pitching change, the walk train would continue with another walk to
Quincy Bryant to tie the game at 4-4. Leadoff hitter
Kyle Radi would make them pay, sending a single through the left side to plate two runs, giving UD a 6-4 lead, their first lead since the second inning. The Spartans would take another gift from the Dutch, this time by way of a throwing error to allow another two-out run to score and building a three-run lead once again.
After trading runs in the seventh, it was the Central's turn to benefit from an error. A single to center rolled under the glove of UD's center fielder to allow two Dutch runs to score and suddenly the UD lead was back down to one. It seems as if most UD games this season have a had a flair for the dramatics and this one would be no different as the Dutch would place two runners on base in the ninth, but the Spartans would escape the jam with a harmless fly to center to earn the doubleheader split.
Derek Hardin picked up the win coming out of the pen, throwing 2.1 innings and allowing just one earned run.
Seth Crandall would pick up his first save of the season, striking out one in the ninth.
The Spartans and Dutch will hit the field again tomorrow at 1 p.m. for another doubleheader
