CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The Knights were defeated 4-3 by Luther in a hard-fought American Rivers Conference Tournament battle on Friday, May 10. Wartburg closes the 2024 season with an overall record of 23-19 and an A-R-C record of 12-12.
Game Summary
- Second Inning
- The Norse were first on the scoreboard after stringing together a couple of hits and a sacrifice fly out made it 1-0 Luther after two innings
- Fourth Inning
- Keaton Gray recorded the first hit for the Knights to lead off the top of the fourth and then was advanced to third after an Eliot Jurgensen single to right field
- Wartburg tied up the game at 1-1 after a groundout from Zach Walton scored Gray from third
- Fifth Inning
- After Luther loaded the bases, the Norse scored on run on a wild pitch and then brought another in after a sacrifice popout to shallow right field that gave the Norse a 3-1 lead through five innings
- Seventh Inning
- Stubitz walked to begin the inning and then was advanced to third base after a single to right field from Will Armstrong
- Noah Day singled through the right side to score Stubitz and cut the Luther lead in half
- With runners on second and third, Aiden Tobin tied the game up at 3-3 with a groundout that scored Armstrong
- Eighth Inning
- Both Jurgensen and Stubitz reached base in the eighth, but strong defense from Luther kept the game tied at 3-3 headed to the bottom of the eighth
- The tie was broken in the bottom of the eighth when Peyton Lindmark hit a solo homerun to right field
- Hunter Sehr got the Knights out of a bases loaded jam to keep the deficit at one run headed to the ninth
- Ninth Inning
- Luther was able to hold off the Knights for another half inning to secure a 4-3 win
Top Performers
Coaches Comments
Head
Casey Klunder began his post-game thoughts talking about the growth he saw from his pitching staff towards the end of the season, "What a spot for a freshman (
Cael Funk) to come in and perform. I'm so proud of how our pitchers grew throughout the year, when we played Luther in the regular season we allowed 35 runs and in two tournament games our guys allowed four runs."
"We need to give ourselves more opportunities at the plate instead of waiting until there's already two outs," said Klunder on scoring just five runs between the last two games. "It's hard to win games with no extra-base hits, but we also need to do a better job when we do have runners in scoring postion."
"One of the bright spots of the tournament run was the hitting of
Eliot Jurgensen, what a three game stretch for him. I'm really excited to see how he continues to improve in the future." said Klunder about Jurgensen's seven hits in the tournament.
Klunder spoke on the fight and competiveness the Knights brought to the A-R-C Tournament, "This was a team that no one was excited to play at the end of the season. I'm so proud of the way these guys continued to fight in all three games this weekend."
"We defenitely came along way from some of those early fall practices," said Klunder. "I'm extremely proud of the team's accomplishments, but I'm even more proud of the people they are and I've enjoyed every bit of this season with them."
Klunder went on to speak about the impact this year's group of graduating seniors made, "I think the term 'laying the foundation' is over used, but I think it's the perfect description for this group of seniors after all they have given this program. I hope that these guys take pride in that and if we're lucky enough to have success in the future, these guys helped make that possible."
Notes/Streaks
- This marked the fifth overall matchup of the season and second in this tournament between these programs
- Wartburg won three out of the five matchups
- The all-time series in A-R-C Tournament play between these programs moves to 9-6, still in favor of Luther
- Six different Knights recorded a hit today
- Gray closes his Wartburg career third all-time in hits with 223 and tied for 10th most games played in a career with 159
- 23rd RBI for Day this season
- Sixth RBI for Tobin this season
