WAVERLY, Iowa - The Wartburg College baseball team won both games during its Monday, March 29 American Rivers Conference doubleheader versus Central College, defeating the Dutch by scores of 15-7 and 11-1 to take the series victory.

Wartburg outscored the Dutch 26-8 and totaled 26 hits and 24 runs batted in through two games. Four Knights notched at least four base hits, while Ethan Hayes batted in eight runs.

The Knights' pitching staff held Central to seven earned runs with 15 strikeouts.

Wartburg 15, Central 7 
The Orange & Black offense broke out for season-highs in runs, hits, and runs batted in during game one of the day and three of the series, scoring 15 on 15 hits and 15 RBI. 
 
Down 5-0 after one and a half innings, Wartburg got on the board with two in the bottom of the second off a pair of RBI singles from Steven Lawrence and Max Goodhue. 
 
Bryce Butler's first career home run scored Hayes to give the Knights a 6-5 lead in the third inning. 
 
Central reclaimed the lead with two runs in the fifth, but the Wartburg offense came to life in large part during the sixth, scoring nine runs off four hits. 
 
Hayes' second hit and third RBI of the game tied the game at 7-7. Pinch hitter Brett Kelting then came up clutch with a 2-RBI double for the game-winning runs. Ben DeKruyf helped pad the lead later with a grand slam, pushing the score to 15-7. 
 
Aaron Eybers earned the win on the mound for the Knights, his first of the season. He pitched five innings in relief of starting pitcher Cael Boehmer, allowing two earned runs. 
 
Goodhue and DeKruyf each tallied three base hits, while Parker Ridge and Hayes had two apiece. 
 
Game 2 
Starting pitcher Jacob Murray held the Dutch scoreless through the first five innings before the visitors spoiled the shutout bid in the sixth. Murray had nine strikeouts and earned his second win of the season, allowing seven Central hits.

Wartburg's late offensive outburst from game one carried into the series finale, claiming a 3-0 lead off homers from Ridge and Hayes. 

The Knights scored another trio of runs in the third inning and a pair in the fourth to gain an 8-0 advantage.

Hayes brought the Wartburg lead into double digits in the sixth with his second homer of the game, an opposite field three-run round-tripper to extend the home team's lead to 11-1.

Lawrence, Goodhue, Ridge, Hayes, and DeKruyf each had two hits. 

Joey Ciero sent the Dutch down in order in the seventh to secure the 10-run rule victory for Wartburg.

Up Next
Wartburg, now 6-8 overall and 4-4 during A-R-C competition, hits the road for Lincoln, Neb. on April 2-3 for a four-game conference series at Nebraska Wesleyan University.