Central baseball team defeated in home opener
PELLA — The Central College baseball team came up short in its first home game of the season against Grinnell College Wednesday, falling to the Pioneers 9-8.
The Dutch (4-7) and the Pioneers (3-8) played a back-and-forth game with five lead changes over the course of nine innings. Grinnell had eight hits including three home runs. Central had seven hits as a team, but its only extra-base hits were doubles by Zach Zylstra (senior, Pella, Pella Christian HS) and Adam Lindell (junior, Denver, Colo., Arapahoe HS). Zylstra and Michael Reuter (sophomore, Monticello) led the Dutch with two hits apiece.
Matt Schissel (junior, Milan, Ill., Rock Island Alleman HS) got the start on the mound for Central, going five innings and giving up six runs on five hits. Alex Dornacker (freshman, West Des Moines, Iowa, Valley HS) took the loss after giving up three runs in the seventh and Mark Schroeder (junior, Chariton) closed the game out with two scoreless innings.
“We didn’t play very well,” coach Matt Schirm said. “It was disappointing because that’s a game we needed to win in order to get some momentum going into the conference season. We had way too many mental mistakes and bad at-bats. We didn’t perform well in any phase of the game.”
Wednesday’s home game came as a surprise after unplayable field conditions in Grinnell forced the location of the game to be changed to Pella.
The Iowa Conference season begins this weekend for Central. The Dutch will head to Waverly for four games against Wartburg, starting with a doubleheader Friday at 3:30 p.m.
“We’ve got to come back to practice tomorrow and get ready for Wartburg this weekend,” Schirm said. “I want us to put all three phases of the game together and play a lot better than we have so far this season. If we can do that, then we can be competitive this weekend.”
College baseball
at Pella, Iowa
Game 1
Central 020 021 210—8 7 2
Grinnell 020 040 30x —9 8 2
Schissel, Dornacker, Schroeder and Reuter/Frideres; Tinkham, Essig, and Hammond. W—Essig (1-2); L—Dornacker (0-2). Central 4-7, Grinnell 3-8