Playing in front of the home crowd for the first time in the Iowa Conference portion of their schedule, the Central College softball team split a doubleheader against Dubuque yesterday afternoon. The Dutch drew eight walks in the opening game, but only mustered two hits in a 3-1 loss in the opener. With a run already across and the bases loaded, Whitney Sowers hit a line drive that led to a double play that ended the game. In game two, Central jumped up 3-0 in the first but found themselves in a 3-3 dogfight going into the bottom of the sixth inning. That’s when the offense finally erupted, scoring five times to earn the Dutch an 8-3 victory as they improve to 24-7 on the season and 5-1 in the the IIAC. George Wares’ club now turns around and travels to Dubuque this afternoon to play Loras in another league twinbill. First pitch is at 2:00 this afternoon in Dubuque. Trevor Castle and Andrew Schneider will have the play-by-play live on 92.1 KRLS and www.kniakrls.com.