Baseball Beats Wartburg, Advances to Title Game
May 11, 2018
Score by Innings R H E
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Wartburg............ 000 010 100 - 2 5 2
Dubuque............. 100 200 00X - 3 7 3
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CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The University of Dubuque baseball team upended the Wartburg College Knights on Friday afternoon, 3-2, to advance to the Iowa Conference Tournament Championship game for the first time in program history.
How It Happened
-For the second straight day UD took the early lead in the bottom of the first inning. The Spartans put the first three runners on to load the bases when Justin Jensen grounded into a 6-4-3 double play but Lasswell scored from third on the play to put UD ahead 1-0.
-UD threatened to tack on runs in the third inning as Tyler Imirch began the inning hustling down the first baseline for an infield hit, which was followed up by a single to right field by Jack Lasswell. After Dalton Garst sacrifice bunted them over to second and third with only one out, Wartburg starting pitcher Ben Milewski recorded a strikeout and flyout to right to strand the Spartan runners.
-Wartburg had their first scoring chance of the afternoon in the top of the fourth, putting two runners on with no one out but Doug Van Dyke maneuvered his way around the mess to get out of the inning with no damage done.
-With two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Will Doherty delivered his second triple in as many days to plate Zach McCoy and move the lead to 2-0. The Spartans got some help from the Knights as a throwing error with two outs in the fourth continued the inning and allowed Doherty to score from third.
-The Knights got their first run of the afternoon in the top of the fifth on a double down the left field line but could not scratch across another in the inning to make it a 3-1 game at the halfway point.
-The Spartans had another run scoring opportunity in the bottom of the sixth inning but on a suicide squeeze attempt the pitch was thrown in the dirt and the runner was tagged out.
-Wartburg delivered two bloop hits the top of the seventh inning, including off the glove of a diving Justin Jensen to cut the UD lead to 3-2.
-Nathan Schneiderman came in for the eighth inning for a chance at a two inning save. Schneiderman struck out the first two batters but a walk and back to back errors by the Spartans loaded the bases. He then went 1-2-3 in the eighth inning to send the Spartans into the championship game.
At the Plate
Jack Lasswell: 3-4, 1 R (only Spartan with multiple hits)
Will Doherty: 1-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 3B
Thomas Kempf: 1-3, 1 2B
Pitching Breakdown
Doug Van Dyke (W, 6-2) : 7.0 IP, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 H, 4 K, 3 BB
Nathan Schneiderman: (S, 8): 2.0 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 2 K
Game Notes
-This is the first time in program history that they have played in the Finals of the Iowa Conference Tournament
-With three more hits on Friday, Jack Lasswell leads the team with 19 multi-hit games this season and three hit games with five.
-Van Dyke picked up his sixth win of the season and 18th of his career. His 18th win breaks the all-time wins record by a UD pitcher and his sixth win of the year puts him in a tie for second with nine others.
-Van Dyke also has the career strikeout record with 186.
Up Next
The Spartans will take on the winner of Saturday’s 10:00 a.m. contest (Wartburg vs. TBD), in the Iowa Conference championship game at 1:00.
