Central falls to Hendrix

Central College

CONWAY, Ark. — The Central College baseball team was unable to stop its four-game skid, falling to Hendrix College (Ark.) 6-2 Saturday.

Central (1-5) scored a run in each of the opening two innings before surrendering a run to the Warriors in the bottom of the second. Hendrix broke open the game after a five-run third inning.

Sophomore pitcher Billy Coppage (West Point, Fort Madison HS) received the loss after throwing six innings, giving up six runs, four earned, on nine hits and struck out one Warrior.

“Billy is really consistent and showed that again today,” said coach Matt Schirm. “He was in the zone and forced a lot of contact and kept us in the game.”

After rattling off eight runs in the first game of the three-game series with Hendrix, Central’s offense was held to two runs over the next 16 innings.

“They threw a guy last night that had some velocity that we weren’t quite ready for and today we had some hard-hit outs,” said Schirm.

Filling in for an injured left fielder, Dallyn Putz (Manchester, West Delaware HS) went 2-for-2 with two singles and senior outfielder Seth Griffiths (Ottumwa) went 1-for-3 with an RBI, a run scored and stole his fifth bag of the season.

The Dutch head to Auburndale, Fla. for the RussMatt Invitational. Central begins invitational play Monday with a doubleheader against Cornell College with first pitch thrown at Noon. The invitational continues through Saturday for the Dutch.