Central splits on day one of conference baseball tournament
Central College
CEDAR RAPIDS — After taking a convincing 9-1 win against Loras College in the Iowa Conference tournament quarterfinals Thursday, the Central College baseball team fell to Coe College in the semifinals 7-2.
Playing as the No. 3 seed, the Dutch (21-20) got a strong pitching performance out of Andy Carr (senior, Rockford, Ill., Lutheran HS) in game one. Carr did not record a strikeout on the day, but allowed just five hits.
“He was pretty dominant and in control the whole time,” coach Matt Schirm said. “They were’t able to hit many balls hard off him. We got on the board offensively to support him early too, which I’m sure made him feel pretty comfortable out there.”
Carr’s battery mate, catcher Michael Reuter (sophomore, Monticello) did his part to support his pitcher. Reuter contributed three hits, including a pair of doubles to drive in two runs. He also provided all of the Dutch offense in the second game, connecting on a two-run home run.
“He struggled last weekend against Loras but really picked it up again today,” Schirm said. “Besides the two doubles and the home run, he hit several other balls hard. It’s good to see him performing like he did earlier in the season.”
Shortstop Kirby Coppess (senior, Urbandale) also had a solid performance at the plate in game one. He led off the bottom of the first with a triple and connected on an RBI double in the fifth. It was the sixth-time this season that Coppess has had a three-hit game.
The Dutch struggled against Coe in game two. The team’s ace Dylan Diveney (freshman, Marshalltown) allowed seven runs on nine hits to lose for the first time since March 28. Central could only muster five hits in game two and committed two errors that led to Kohawk runs.
The loss puts Central into the consolation bracket and one more loss away from elimination. The opponent has yet to be determined, but Central won’t play until 7 p.m. Friday night. A win Friday would allow the Dutch to move on to the final day of the tournament on Saturday.
“We just have to put the second game today behind us,” Schirm said. “We have to play better in all phases. We need to play defense better and hit the ball like we did in the first game today.”
A live video steam and statistics for Friday night’s contest will be available on the Iowa Conference website at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/iiac/.
College baseball
at Cedar Rapids
Game 1
Loras 000 000 010—1 5 3
Central 500 030 01x—9 10 1
Carr and Reuter; Steines, Petrosky, Massner and Fahlgren. W—Carr (6-1); L—Steines (2-5). Central 21-19, Loras 19-21
Game 2
Central 000 000 020—2 5 2
Coe 104 002 00x—7 9 2
Diveney, Schroeder and Reuter; Greene, Alberhasky and Henning W—Diveney (5-4); L—Alberhasky (4-4). Central 21-10, Coe 29-12
