Heart-breaking loss for Central baseball team
Central College
CEDAR RAPIDS — After giving No. 12 ranked Wartburg College all it could handle for eight and a half innings, the Central College baseball team lost 4-3 in the Iowa Conference tournament Saturday on a walk-off single.
After beating Loras 8-0 Friday night in a game that ended at 9:08 p.m., Central was back on the field just over 12 hours later to play the regular season champions from Wartburg.
Wartburg struck first, scoring one in the bottom of the third. The Dutch answered with two of their own in the top of the fourth, helped by doubles from left fielder Zach Zylstra (senior, Pella, Pella Christian) and right fielder Seth Griffiths (sophomore, Ottumwa).
Central was able to add an insurance run in the seventh when second baseman Spencer Gritsch’s (junior, Brooklyn, Iowa, BGM HS) single up the middle scored Griffiths, extending the lead to 3-1.
Alex Dornacker (freshman, West Des Moines, Valley HS) started for Central on the mound. Despite giving up eight hits and allowing three walks, Dornacker was able to limit the Knights to just one run in six innings.
“He did everything we needed him to do and more,” coach Matt Schirm said. “He really battled and our defense made some good plays behind him. He was really good on the mound today.”
Wartburg began to mount a comeback in the home half of the ninth inning. Andy Carr (senior, Rockford, Ill., Lutheran HS), who took over for Dornacker in the seventh, got the leadoff hitter to line out. With two runners on, a Wartburg single, compounded with a Dutch throwing error, allowed for both Knight runners to score and tie the game at 2-2.
After throwing eight scoreless innings Friday night, Matt Schissel (junior, Milan, Ill., Alleman HS) took over for Carr on the mound. Schissel struck out his first batter, but the second batter Tyler Willis connected on a walk-off single over the diving Kirby Coppess (senior, Urbandale) at shortstop to give Wartburg the 4-3 win.
The loss ends Central’s season with 22-21 record. The four seniors, Carr, Coppess, Zylstra and Jordan Gier (Washington), who make up this year’s graduating class will leave with 101 career wins, tying last year’s class for the most wins in Central history.
“I really can’t say enough about the seniors,” Schirm said. “They’ve been great leaders for us. They’ve made my transitition really easy, they bought in to what I was trying to get them to do. They’ll have an impact for years to come on the younger guys because of the example they set.”
For next season, the Dutch return six of eight starting position players and the pitchers responsible for 271 of 337 innings pitched this season. A very young team to start the season, Central’s grew up throughout the season and Schirm believes his team can reach greater heights next season.
“We have a very good nucleus of guys coming back,” he said. “I’m excited about the new guys coming in next year as well, I think the arrow is pointing up. Obviously our goal is going to be to win the conference and qualify for the national tournament.”
