The Central College baseball team began Iowa Conference play Saturday, sweeping a doubleheader with Loras College in the first home games of the season for the Dutch.  Temperatures in the mid-30s and good pitching made runs hard to come by in the first game, as the Dutch rode a complete-game performance by Joel Pulliam to a 2-0 win; then carried that momentum into an 8-5 victory in the nightcap.  

Pulliam gave up just four hits and no runs in seven innings of work, while also striking out seven Duhawk batters.  Freshman left fielder Adam Ariola provided the offensive spark with an RBI double in the second inning; then scored one batter later on a sacrifice grounder by David Lakin for the only runs of the game.  

Central began game two with seven runs in the first three innings, while Loras rattled Dirk Lindaman for five runs to stay within striking distance.  The combination of pitchers Ryan Dusil and Bret Bell would hold the Duhawks scoreless for the final four innings, though, and Mike Furlong took advantage of the seventh Loras error of the game to score one final insurance run.  Second baseman Ryan Allison went 2-for-3 at the plate with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored in the second game and was 3-of-5 at the plate on the afternoon.

The sweep starts the Central baseball team at 2-0 in conference play and moves them  to 11-3 overall.  Central concludes the series with Loras Sunday afternoon in Pella at 1:00 pm with a make-up nine-inning game that was originally scheduled for Friday.  

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