Photo courtesy of Sports Information
LUKE ULLESTAD ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR
The Knights dropped a doubleheader to Grinnell losing 4-1 and 11-4 Sunday at Hertel Field.
“It was not a good day for the Knights overall. We couldn’t come up with a key hit today and left a lot of runners on base,” head coach Joel Holst said.
The main highlight of the day for the Knights was Bill Schmitt’s home run in his first at-bat of the first game. Wartburg held a 1-0 lead for the first four innings of play.
Grinnell went on an offensive tear in the fifth inning and scored four runs with two home runs off Nathan Underberg, who recorded the loss. The loss dropped his season record to 1-2.
Ben Roemmich and Nate Lahr each recorded two hits each for Wartburg, while four others had one hit each.
Wartburg was held scoreless for the final five innings and fell 4-1.
Wartburg dropped game two 11-4.
Roemmich, Schmitt and Steve Chamberlain led the Knights offensivley with two hits a piece.
Jordan Kaiser started on the mound for the Knights and he pitched two innings. He was credited the loss which dropped his record to 0-3 on the season.
Grinnell scored runs in all but one inning, with four runs in the second inning.
Patrick Dorman also saw action on the mound as he pitched three innings for the Knights.
Dorman struck out all three batters he faced in the third inning and finished with four strike outs on the afternoon.
After Grinnell put together a couple of hits, Roemmich entered to relieve Dorman for the final two innings of the game.
“Many of them, it’s their first innings that they’ve been throwing from a varsity stand point. Obviously, they’re not ready for varsity games right now,” Holst said.
Wartburg scored one run in the bottom of the seventh but it was not enough to rally back as Grinnell went on to win 11-4.
The Knights swept the University of Dubuque Spartans in doubleheader action on Saturday, 8-7 and 7-5, in Dubuque.
In game one, Wartburg posted 16 hits. Four Knights recorded three hits a piece, and Roemmich added two hits. Lahr and Chamberlain also had hits.
Nate Rost started on the mound for the Knights. He pitched four and two-thirds innings before being replaced by Steve Benson in the bottom of the fifth inning.
“Nate got into a tough inning. They hit the ball and put seven runs up in one inning. He was cruising and just kind of lost some focus,” Holst said.
Wartburg entered the bottom of the fifth inning with a 7-0 lead over the Spartans. However, Dubuque rallied and managed to put up seven runs in the inning off of five hits and one error committed by the Knights.
Benson managed to shut down the Spartans once he took the mound. He struck out five batters, allowed one hit, no walks and no earned-runs.
Neither team scored runs for the next three innings. However, in the top of the ninth inning, Patrick Grau singled to second base and advanced to second on a fielder’s choice.
Schmitt connected and singled to score Grau. The Knights regained the lead, 8-7.
This was the third time of the season the Knights had played in extra-inning games. Benson recorded his first victory on the year to put his season record at 1-0.
Wartburg defeated Dubuque 7-5 in the second game of the doubleheader.
The Knights’ bats remained in action as they posted 11 hits in game two. Schmitt led the Knights offensively with four hits, while Dan Marshall recorded two and five other Knights’ added one hit each.
Dan Grosser started on the mound for the Knights and gave up five hits, four earned runs and struck out one batter in two innings pitched. Ryan Doty entered in relief to Grosser to begin the third inning. Doty gave up two hits, one earned run and struck out four in five innings of action.
Wartburg scored two runs in the first inning off a two RBI double from Schmitt. The Knights scored three more runs in the top of the third inning with RBIs from Schmitt, Lahr and Marshall.
The Spartans answered offensively in their half of the third inning and scored four runs to cut the Knights’ lead to one, 5-4.
Both teams scored one run a piece in the fifth inning which moved the score to 6-5 heading into the sixth inning. After no runs scored in the sixth, the Knights had one last chance to score in their half of the seventh inning.
Danny Rose started off the inning with a walk, where he later advanced to second on a sacrifice ground ball to the pitcher. Schmitt came through once again for the Knights as he drove in Rose on a single to left field moving the score to 7-5.
“So we’re hoping Bill can keep it going and we can get some of these other guys that are not quite hitting very well going,” Holst said.
Dubuque went three up, three down after two ground outs and a fly out to end the game in a victorious fashion, 7-5.
On Friday, the Knights defeated the Spartans 4-3 in Dubuque in a nine-inning match-up.
Brad Watson pitched all nine innings for the Knights and struck 11 Spartan batters, while giving up only two earned runs, four hits and two walks.
Roemmich led the Knights offensively with three hits, while six others had one hit a piece.
The Knights opened the game with two runs scored in the first inning off of four hits. However, after a three-run third inning for the Spartans, they managed to take the lead 3-2 after three innings of play.
Wartburg regained the lead in the fifth inning as they scored two more runs to move the score to 4-3.
The Knights’ Watson’s season pitching record to 5-3.
After the two losses to Grinnell on Sunday, the Knights move to 14-12 overall and remain at 8-2 in conference play. Wartburg hosts Buena Vista for a doubleheader on Tuesday beginning at 3:30 p.m.