LINCOLN, Neb. -- The Nebraska Wesleyan baseball team completed the opening weekend of conference play with a split of four games as they won the opening game against Dakota Wesleyan then dropped game two on Sunday afternoon.

NWU won the opener 6-3, then lost a slugfest in the second game with a score of 16-11.  The Prairie Wolves are now 11-13 overall and 2-2 in GPAC play.

Pitchers Brody Murphy, Connor Cech and Pete Sitorius combined to allow only three hits to the Tigers in the opening game.  Murphy picked up his fifth win of the season as the starting pitcher.  He went 4+ innings allowing three hits and three earned runs.  Murphy struck out three, but walked three.   Cech and Sitorius did not allow a hit in their three innings of relief.

The first run of the game came in the bottom of the 3rd inning as the Prairie Wolves got on the scoreboard first.  Aaron Ochsner walked to open the inning and would score on a fielding error.

NWU exploded for three runs in the 4th inning.  Chase Powers drove in two with a single and the Prairie Wolves took advantage of another error to score the third run.  Leading by just one run, NWU added two more runs in the 6th.  Joe Babic got an RBI single and Tyler Winterstein doubled to drive in Babic.

The Prairie Wolves finished with six total hits, led by Matt Orozco who was 2-3.

Game two was much different as the Prairie Wolves struggled on the mound, in the field and missed opportunities at the plate.

Dakota Wesleyan jumped ahead 5-0 in the 1st inning.  Matt Orozco homered over the left field wall in the bottom of the inning to make the score 5-2.  DWU then got three more runs in the 3rd inning to lead 8-2.

NWU did not go away as they plated five runs in the bottom of the 3rd to tie the game.  Four straight batters reached base in the inning, including an RBI double by Joe Babic.  Winterstein hit a sacrifice fly to drive in a run, then Justus Stocks doubled to left field to bring in two runs.  Stocks would come around to score on an error by the Tigers.

DWU then scored six unanswered runs to go back up 14-8 after six innings.  NWU cut that lead in half with three runs in the 7th inning.  Stocks got an RBI double and James McKain hit an RBI double down the line.  McKain scored later on a balk with the bases loaded.  NWU had the bases loaded with the go-ahead run at the plate, but the inning ended with a pop up.

That was the final threat for the Prairie Wolves as DWU scored two more runs in the 8th to secure the win.

Dakota Wesleyan finished with 15 hits, walked three times are were hit by a pitch five times.  Chris Combs was 4-5 with three RBI to lead the Tigers.

NWU committed six errors in the game and finished with 10 hits.  The Prairie Wolves were led by Justus Stocks who was 3-4 with two doubles and three RBI.  Caleb Thiessen started the game going 2 2/3 innings allowing eight runs, two earned on eight hits.  Dalton Hinrichs took the loss allowing two runs in 1 1/3 innings.