WAVERLY, Iowa – Baseball concluded its regular season series with Nebraska Wesleyan - on Saturday, Apr. 6. After today, the Knights move to 14- 8 overall and 5-5 in American Rivers Conference play.
Game Summary
- Game One
- Second Inning
- NWU broke the scoreless tie with a home run to left field in the top of the second
- Wartburg answered with three runs scored in the bottom half after Aiden Tobin hit a double to score Caleb Andrews and tie the game
- The Knights added two more runs after wild pitches to make it 3-1
- Third Inning
- The Prairie Wolves got one run back with another solo shot to leadoff the third inning
- Fourth Inning
- NWU ripped off five straight hits to begin the fourth, which resulted in three runs to bring the score to 5-3
- Fifth Inning
- Ninth Inning
- Despite each team having opportunities with runners in scoring positions, the score remained 5-5 heading into the final frame
- With two runners on and two outs, Eliot Jurgensen blasted a walk-off homer to left field to give Wartburg an 8-5 win
- Game Two
- First Inning
- NWU was again first on the board in game two after two singles brought a runner home to make it 1-0 Prairie Wolves
- Second Inning
- Nebraska Wesleyan added three more runs to its total in the next inning to go ahead 4-0
- Sam Nicolino crushed a home run to left field to cut the lead to 4-1 after two innings
- Third Inning
- Fourth Inning
- The Prairie Wolves hit a sacrifice fly to bring their lead back to three runs
- Fifth Inning
- NWU added another run in the top half, but Walton hit a two-run home run in the bottom half of the inning to make the score 6-4
- A single through the right side from Cole Wessling scored Nicolino to cut the NWU lead to 6-5 after five innings
- Sixth Inning
- After NWU tacked on another run, a Walton triple to the wall in center field scored Jurgensen to make the score 7-6 after six innings of play
- Ninth Inning
- Prairie Wolves added another run and held off Wartburg in the final innings to win 8-6
Top Performers
Coaches Comments
Head Coach
Casey Klunder began his postgame thoughts talking about getting a series win, "It's tough to get series wins in the A-R-C," said Klunder. "We've been able to string back-to-back series wins now, which is huge for us moving forward."
Kyle Thompson was a big part of the Knights' game one win on the mound, "This was the best stuff I've seen from Thompson," said Klunder. "He's continued to improve his mindset all season and has learned a lot about himself, I'm just really proud of his growth."
"Andrews and Gray had great at-bats and then Jurgensen came through for us with a big hit, which was really awesome to see the guys rally in the bottom of the ninth." said Klunder about Jurgensen's walk-off homer that lifted Wartburg to a 8-5 win.
Klunder also spoke about sophomore outfielder,
Aiden Tobin, "We've been dealing with some injuries in the outfield, so its been a next man up mentalitiy for us and Tobin did a fantastic job stepping up in his role today." Making his first two career starts, Tobin finished the day 4/7 at the plate with three doubles and one RBI.
"I'm really proud of how we kept fighting al the way through game two," said Klunder. "We just allowed too many runs in those middle innings and that's what killed us in game two today."
Notes/Streaks
- Walton now owns the school record for career putouts with 1, 066
- Previous record had been held since 1999
- 14 wins this season ties last season's win total
- Sixth home run for Jurgensen and Walton this season (Team high)
- First win on the mound for Thompson
- First extra-base hits of Tobin's career
- Hit three between two games today
- Nicolino now has five career home runs
Next Time Out
The Knights are back in action on Tuesday, Apr. 9 in a doubleheader against Buena Vista University on the road.
