PELLA — Despite having more hits than their opponent, the Central College baseball team lost 3-2 against Wartburg College Friday afternoon.
Central (9-7 overall, 0-6 American Rivers Conference) outhit Wartburg College (13-9, 3-2 conference) by a 9-8 margin but were stymied by five double plays turned by the Knights.
"To get that many hits off a pitcher like Dylan Gotto, we have to feel good about that with our offense moving forward," coach Casey Klunder said. " We had a lot of good swings and a lot of good at-bats, but unfortunately we didn't get credit for all of our good hits."
Shortstop Tanner Bigelow (sophomore, Gilbert, Ariz., Highland HS), first baseman Declan O'Hare (junior, Los Angeles, Calif., John Marshall HS), right fielder Colton DeRocher (sophomore, Sioux City, East HS) and designated hitter Garrett Finley (junior, DeWitt, Central DeWitt HS) each had two hits. DeRocher had the lone RBI with a third-inning single to plate Bigelow. DeRocher also got in a pickle between first and second, giving Lucas Farren (fifth year, second baseman, Yorkville, Ill.) time to score the second run.
Relief pitcher Sam Staley (junior, Cedar Rapids, Jefferson HS) flummoxed the Knights bat for six innings, holding them scoreless with just two hits. Landon Thiele (junior, Moline, Ill.) took the loss as the starter, giving up all three runs in the first three frames.
"We had planned on using several different pitchers but he obviously made it really tough to take him out," Klunder said. "He got his pitches across for strikes and got some weak contact. He pounded the strike zone and when you do that you give yourself a chance to win"
Central and Wartburg return to the A.N. Kuyper Athletics Complex baseball field Saturday at noon for a doubleheader.
"The most important thing is we played better," Klunder said. "We had some better at-bats, we had some cleaner defense and we got some great pitching. Those are things that we didn't get at times in the past week. The good news is we're improving and hopefully we can keep taking steps forward."
