Wayne State rallied from a four-run deficit in game one to force extra innings and then scored three in the ninth on a homerun by Travis Parsons to take the opening contest and then dominated the second match up from their opening at bat. The Wildcats won game one by an 8-5 count and then delivered a dominating 17-1 loss to the Peacocks. After the two losses, Upper Iowa falls to 17-18 overall and 11-11 in the Northern Sun Conference, while Wayne State moves to 14-16 overall and 7-9 in conference action.
In the first game, the Peacocks struck with a run in the bottom of the first when Rudy Casillas hit a single and stole second base; Matt Smoley recorded the rbi-single driving Casillas home to open the day’s scoring. Wayne State tied the game in the top of the fourth with two outs as Nick Bidroski recorded an rbi-double to tie the game at one.
The Peacocks resumed their scoring in the bottom of the fifth when Nick Bergeman hit a leadoff double and was driven in from third on an a rbi-single up the middle by Pat Arntson. Smoley singled and Eric Anderson walked to load the bases setting up an rbi-single by Mikey Henrichs and a two-run, seeing-eye single from Matt Corbitt to give the Peacocks a 5-1 lead.
The Wildcats bounced back with a strong four-run effort in the top of the sixth to knot the game at five. All four Wayne State runs came with two outs in the inning and the final two came on an infield error on a ground ball that could have ended the inning and kept the Peacocks in the lead.
In the top of the ninth, WSC’s Travis Parsons hit a three-run blast over the left field wall to put the visitors ahead 8-5. All eight of the Wildcat runs in the game came with two outs.
Matt Meier (1-0) recorded his first victory of the season and UIU’s Kyle MacDonald (0-1) took the loss in his first action of the season. MacDonald threw 3 innings and allowed the game winning homer, but pitched a scoreless seventh and eighth innings to give UIU the opportunity to push a winning run across. Brett Westra started and threw 5.2 innings allowing 5 runs, 3 earned, on 7 hits.
In the second game, the Wildcats put seven runs on the board in the first inning and chased the Peacock starter, Tyler Beck, after only two-thirds of an inning. Wayne State added four runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth before Upper Iowa finally scratched the scoreboard with a run in the bottom of the sixth. The visitors added two final runs in the seventh to claim the 17-1 win.
UIU’s run came on a John Dobson rbi-single that plated Taylor Brecht, who doubled earlier in the inning.
The Peacocks will leave bright and early tomorrow morning for a four-game series with the Mavericks of Minnesota State in Mankato, Minnesota. UIU and MSU will play two tomorrow beginning at 1 p.m. and then again on Saturday at noon.
