AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Nebraska Wesleyan baseball team closed out their spring trip to Florida with a pair of losses to finish the trip at 2-5.  NWU fell 6-3 to John Carroll on Thursday (Mar. 8) then ended the week with a 7-1 setback to Montclair State on Friday.
 
Versus John Carroll, the Prairie Wolves fell behind 6-0 after an inning and a half and they were never able to recover.  JCU scored two in the 1^st inning then came back in the 2^nd inning to plate four taking advantage of three walks and an error.
 
NWU then settled down and scored a run in their half of the 2^nd inning as Owen Gubbels got an RBI single to drive in Kyle Hunter.  They added two more runs in the 3^rd inning as Hunter hit an RBI double and Jared Scdoris singled to bring in another run making the score 6-3 after three innings.
 
Pitching took over the rest of the way as neither team scored a run the final six innings of the game.  Brody Murphy got the start for NWU on the mound and pitched six innings allowing five earned runs on nine hits.  He struck out six but walked six.  Murphy did go over 100 strikeouts for his career in the game.  Nick Bruno and Tucker McHugh came in to pitch the final three innings and didn't allow a run. Bruno struck out four in two innings, while McHugh struck out all three batters he faced.
 
Hunter was a perfect 3-3 at the plate with a double and RBI, with Brook Johnson going 3-5 for the Prairie Wolves.
 
Against Montclair State on Saturday, the NWU offense never got going managing just five hits and one run striking out seven times.  MSU scored one run in the bottom of the 1^st, then blew the game open with three runs in both the 6^th and 7^th innings.
 
Prairie Wolves starting pitcher Jesse Maguire allowed only five hits and three earned runs in six innings of work.  He struck out five batters. 
 
Brook Johnson was the only NWU player with multiple hits as he was 2-4 with two doubles.