WAVERLY, Iowa-- The Wartburg baseball team (10-7 overall, 1-0 IIAC) opened the conference portion of its schedule with a 9-4 victory over Loras (8-9, 2-2) Friday. Since these games were moved from Dubuque, the Duhawks were the home team on the scoreboard.

The Knights took the early 1-0 lead in their first at-bats as senior Jacob Thumann (DeWitt) drove in junior Clay Henning (Plymouth, Wis.) on his double to centerfield.

Thumann was halfway to the cycle in his second trip to the plate in the third inning with his RBI single which scored classmate Austin Lechtenberg (DeWitt). Henning scored on senior Mike Brown's (Bettendorf) RBI groundout to give the Orange and Black the 3-0 lead.

Loras got on the board in the bottom of the frame as it scored two runs on three hits to make it 3-2.

In the fourth, junior David Fitzgerald (Dubuque) took the first pitch over the right field fence for his first career home run. Classmate Eric Willis (Waverly) drove in Hyler and Lechtenberg on his two-run single to left and later scored on Blake Mahoney's (Des Moines) single to take the 7-2 lead.

Wartburg plated one in the sixth and one in the seventh to extend its lead to 9-2. The Duhawks plated their final runs in the eighth on a two-run homer.

Willis went 3-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs. Thumann was 2-3 with two RBIs and Fitzgerald finished 2-4.

Senior Taylor Gilson (Oelwein) pitched eight complete innings and fanned five in the outing.

The two teams return to the field tomorrow for the doubleheader in the series at noon.