Spartans Beat Bethany Lutheran to Stay Alive
May 18, 2018
Score by Innings R H E
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Bethany Lutheran.... 002 000 100 - 3 11 2
Dubuque............. 110 140 01X - 8 17 2
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DULUTH, Minn. – The University of Dubuque baseball team will play another day as they defeated Bethany Lutheran, 8-3 on Friday afternoon at the Midwest Regional.
The Spartans began the game the way they have so many times this season, and that is by striking first. Jack Lasswell led off the game with a single, followed by a Dalton Garst chopper over the second baseman’s head to send Lasswell from first to third. Kellen Mitchell grounded into a fielder’s choice to second base but heads up base running by Garst allowed Lasswell to score and avoid the double play. UD had an opportunity to add more runs as they had the bases loaded, but grounded into an inning ending, 5-2 double play.
UD put one more run up in the bottom of the second, when Lasswell came through with a clutch, two-out single to left field to score Clevenger and push the lead to 2-0 after two innings.
After leaving runners on in the first two innings, the Vikings got on the board for the first time in the top of the third. Bethany Lutheran recorded two hits in the frame, scoring on a double and fielder’s choice to tie the score at 2-2, but Van Dyke stranded runners on second and third to keep the damage to a minimum.
Tyler Imirch picked up his first hit of the tournament with a single to right field to begin the fourth inning. The Spartans played small ball with Lasswell bunting Imrich over to second before Garst regained the lead for UD with a seeing-eye single through the right side.
UD loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the fifth when Tyler Imrich came through with his second hit of the day with a hustle double to plate two runs to give the Spartans some breathing room. Will Doherty scored on the Spartans sixth run on the very next pitch, when the ball got behind the Vikings catcher for a wild pitch.
The Spartans capped the fifth inning rally with a suicide squeeze. Tyler Imirch came sprinting towards home and Jack Lasswell got the bunt down to execute the squeeze attempt and push the lead to 7-2 after five.
Bethany Lutheran recorded back to back two out knocks in the top of the seventh to cut into the UD lead to 7-3.
Tyler Lewan tacked on one more insurance run for the Spartans in the bottom of the eighth inning when he doubled to left center to score Mitchell from second base. UD had the opportunity to add more but stranded two runners in scoring position.
Doug Van Dyke battled all afternoon on the mound for the Spartans, throwing 151 pitches in his complete game performance to save the bullpen. He scattered 11 hits, constantly dealing with runners on base but limited the Vikings to just three runs and picked up his seventh win of the season. With his second complete game of the season on Friday, Van Dyke has tied the school record for career innings pitched of 257.0 (1994-1997).
Seven different Spartans had at least two hits in the 8-3 win. After going hitless yesterday, Tyler Imrich broke through today and led UD with three hits, driving in two runs and scoring two more of his own. Jack Lasswell joined Imrich with two RBI’s, going two for three in the process. Dalton Garst, Justin Jensen, Thomas Kempf, Tyler Lewan and Jarad Clevenger all had two hits as well.
Game Notes
-Dalton Garst is one hit shy of the UD single season hits record of 60 hits in a season set in 1994.
-UD’s 17 hits is the second most hits in a game this season by the team
-The Spartans have now won 12 of their last 13 games.
Post Game Interviews: https://youtu.be/7ZADq_fZYYQ
The Spartans will play at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon against an opponent to be determined.
