LINCOLN, Neb. – The Nebraska Wesleyan baseball team finally got to play on their home field Sunday afternoon (March 31) as they played host to Coe College in an American Rivers Conference doubleheader at NWU Field. Coe won the first game 15-4 in seven innings then took the second game 4-2. Game three of the series will be played on Monday at 1 pm.
NWU's home opener on March 31 is the latest they've had a home opener since 1993. The Prairie Wolves drop to 3-14 overall and 1-4 in American Rivers play. Coe improved to 14-2 and 4-1 in league play.
Things looked great for the Prairie Wolves early as they scored two runs in the bottom of the 1
st inning of game one. Each of the first three batters had singles, including an RBI single by
Derek Kolbush that scored
Aaron Nichols.
Brook Johnson then hit a sacrifice fly to bring in
Spencer Scheer giving NWU the 2-0 lead.
Coe scored three runs in the top of the 2
nd inning to regain the lead and they would never trail again. The Kohawks plated four runs in the top of the 4
th inning taking a 7-2 lead.
Nine straight Prairie Wolves were retired until the bottom of the 4
th when
Riley Ward got a single.
Kaleb Knox followed up with a walk to put two runners on. Nichols singled to drive in Ward, then Scheer singled to left field driving in Knox. That would be the last run scored by NWU in the first game.
Scheer and
Will Watkins both had two hits to lead the Prairie Wolves.
Hayden Parker took the loss on the mound allowing nine earned runs on 11 hits in 6.0 innings.
Trey Pavlik threw the other inning for NWU allowing four runs.
Three Kohawk pitchers combined to strike out eight PraIrie Wolves in the opening game that was ended after seven innings due to the run rule.
Strikeouts were the main story of game two. Coe starting pitcher Zach Kammin struck out 17 Prairie Wolves in the complete game victory. Kammin allowed only four hits with 0 walks and the 17 strikeouts in nine innings.
Kammin struck out the first five batters and eight of the first 10 batters. Scheer recorded the first hit of the game in the bottom of the 4
th inning with a double to right field. He would score on a single by Johnson. That was the only run of the game for NWU.
Coe jumped on NWU starting pitcher
Connor Cech in the 1
st inning scoring three runs on three hits with a walk and hit batter. From there, Cech did not allow another run then relief pitcher
Josh Seifert gave up only one run in five innings of work.
The score remained 3-1 until the top of the 9
th inning when the Kohawks scored an insurance run. NWU never could threaten the Kohawks as only two runners reached second base.