Two wins on opening day for Central baseball team

Central College

SAUGET, ILL. — Stellar pitching and timely hitting spelled success for the Central College baseball team in a season-opening sweep of Greenville College (Ill.) 2-1 and 10-3.

In first-year coach Matt Schirm’s debut as head coach of the Dutch (2-0), Central’s pitching staff dominated Greenville, allowing just four runs on 12 hits in 18 innings of work.

Blake Judkins (sophomore, Marshalltown) got the start in the first game. After the leadoff batter tripled and scored on a wild pitch, Judkins settled in on the mound, scattering a total of five hits over six innings to get the win.

Game two starter Andy Carr (senior, Rockford, Ill., Lutheran HS) held the Panthers to just one unearned run on four hits in seven innings to earn the win.

A third-inning triple by Zach Zylstra (senior, Pella, Pella Christian HS) in game one, drove in Dakotah Wolken (junior, Dillon, Iowa, East Marshall HS) to even the score at 1-1. Kirby Coppess (senior, Urbandale, Iowa) followed up with an RBI groundout to take a 2-1 lead that would stand the rest of the game.

In game two, Central was nursing a 2-1 lead before blowing the game open with an eight-runs in the top of the eighth inning.

The Dutch will head to sunny Tucson, Arizona on Friday to play eight games over Central’s spring break.

College baseball
at Sauget, Ill.

Game 1

Central 002 000 000—2 10 1

Greenville 100 000 000—1 5 2

Judkins, Diveney, Wolken and Reuter; Opp, Garbe, Collingwood, Bifano, Campbell and Montgomery. W—Judkins; L—Opp; S—Wolken. Central 1-0; Greenville 0-1.

Game 2

Central 000 002 080—10 16 2

Greenville 000 000 102—3 7 1

Carr, Wolken, Schissel and Reuter/Frideres; Strohm, Collingwood, Bifano, Reedy, and Ralls. W—Carr; L—Strohm. Central 2-0; Greenville 0-2.