Baseball Ties for 4th in IIAC, Prepares for IIAC Tournament
May 7, 2016
DECORAH, Iowa - The University of Dubuque baseball wrapped up their regular season on the road at Luther College on saturday and would finish tied with Coe College for fourth place in the Iowa Conference. The tie-break of head-to-head (UD was 1-3 against Coe) gave the #4 seed to Coe with the Spartans the #5 seed in the Iowa Conference Tournament which begins next week.
The Spartans jumped out to an early lead in game three of the series, leading 3-1 after three innings. The Norse tied the game in the bottom of the fourth on a homerun and an unearned run. Luther took their first lead of the match in the bottom of the sixth after they scored the game winning run on three bloop singles. The Spartans would strike out and ground out in their final three at bats.
Jacob Padilla took the loss after throwing a complete game. He allowed two earned runs on eight hits while fanning six Norse batters. The Spartans finished with eight hits with Jared Clevenger, Will Doherty and Austin Thomas each collecting two hits in the loss. Doherty led with two RBI's.
In game four, UD would once again take an early lead before thr Norse would fight from behind scoring three runs in the bottom of the second and five runs in the bottom of the sixth. The Spartans would add three runs in the seventh and a run in the eighth inning to cut the Norse lead to 6-8 as they held Luther scoreless the final three innings. UD finished with 15 hits while holding the Norse to just eight hits as both teams committed a pair of errors.
Daniel Karnick started on the mound and threw the first four innings allowing three runs on three hits after facing 17 batters. Trent Van Egtern tossed the next two innings allowing five runs on four hits after 12 batters. Chase Kueter finished the final two innings, faced seven batters and gave up just one lone hit.
The tandem of Austin McWhite and Will Doherty led the offense by finishing the game going four for five and three for five respectively. Clevenger, McWhite, and Doherty all finished with a double as the Spartans left a dozen runners on base in the loss.
The Iowa Conference Baseball Tournament in May 12-14 at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The tournament host for 2016 is Simpson College.
