Central baseball team drops Derby City Classic finale

Central College

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Central College baseball team finished the three-day Derby City Classic with a tough 5-3 loss to Kalamazoo College (Mich.) Sunday.

Central (1-2) traded runs with Kalamazoo (2-0) in the first inning and later tied the game at two in the fourth before Kalamazoo plated three runs over the final five innings.

The Dutch added a lone run in the ninth inning and had the tying run at the plate before being retired.

“I thought we played pretty well today,” said coach Matt Schirm. “We played hard and had some opportunities but had some bad luck with some hard-hit outs.”

Sophomore shortstop Garrett Saunders (Bonaparte, Van Buren HS) went 1-for-2 with a triple and two walks, senior third baseman Zach Brown (Cedar Rapids, Xavier HS) had two hits in four at-bats and freshman first baseman Tanner Wood (Pella) went 1-for-3 with a walk and scored two runs.

“We need the top half of our order to produce and they did that today with the number of quality at-bats they put together,” said Schirm.

Junior southpaw Adam Carey (Pella) threw 4.2 innings and gave up four runs and struck out two. Freshman pitcher Zach Edwards (Des Moines, Lincoln HS) finished the game, surrendering two hits and one run and struck out three.

The Dutch continue play Friday against Hendrix University (Ark.) at 1 p.m. The matchup will begin the spring break trip for Central, a trip that includes three games in Conway, Ark. followed by seven games in Florida.

“It’s always good to start the season and get rid of the opening day nerves,” said Schirm. “We also wanted to make sure we got our new guys some valuable experience that they can build on for the rest of the season.”