Central rally falls short in baseball defeat

Central College

AUBURNDALE, FLA.— Scoring six runs in the ninth inning wasn’t enough for the Central College baseball team in a 15-11 loss against Thomas More (Ky.) on Tuesday.

Facing off against the Saints (1-1) the defending conference champions in the President’s Athletics Conference, the Dutch (1-3) were up against a top-caliber team.

“They’re a very good program.” Coach Matt Schirm said. “They’re traditionally a team that makes it to the NCAA tournament. It was a good test for us.”

Thomas More broke out the sticks early, putting up 12 of their runs in the first three innings facing Central starter Mark Schroeder (Senior, Chariton). Freshman Billy Coppage (West Point, Iowa, Fort Madison HS) took over for Schroeder and limited the Saints to three runs in the last six innings.

“They hit Mark pretty hard and got way up on us early,” Schirm said. “Billy pitched really well the rest of the game.”

Entering the ninth inning trailing 15-5, the Dutch attempted a furious rally. Central closed the margin to 15-11 with six runs, but came up short in the comeback. Schirm was happy with what he saw from his team at the plate in the inning.

“We strung together eight good at-bats,” he said. “That’s pretty encouraging going forward because that’s what we need to do to be successful.”

Back in the Central lineup after a day off, outfielder Jake Hirst (junior, Davenport, Iowa, Assumption HS) went 3-for-5.

“Jake hit the ball really hard,” Schirm said. “That’s really good to see from him after he struggled his first couple of games.”

Central has the day off tomorrow, before returing to the diamond to face Cornell on Thursday. Schirm is happy with the teams’ growth process.

“Obviously we’re not where we want to be record wise, but there has definitely been some positives,” he said. “We’re learning more about the team and some of the young guys that we have. It’s going to help us down the road once we get in the conference season.”