Central Baseball Team Secures First Sweep of Season
The Central College baseball team swept Hamline University 10-3 and 9-7 Saturday afternoon behind strong starting pitching and an opportunistic offensive effort.
The starting pitchers for the Dutch lasted through 13 of a possible 18 innings on the day while the Dutch offense scored 19 runs on just 18 hits. Declan O’Hare struck out seven as the winning pitcher in the opener, scattering seven hits and two unearned runs over six innings. Bryce Haessig earned the three-inning save with two hits and one walk allowed. Mark Kenney tossed a career-long seven innings in the nightcap, striking out five while scattering eight hits and three walks to allow just three earned runs.
Central capitalized on Hamline miscues in the opener, using four Piper errors, nine walks, a passed ball and a wild pitch to pile on 10 runs. Only four of the 10 Dutch runs were charged as earned. Second baseman Logan McCoy led the offense in game one with a 3-for-4 performance that included a double, while Dom DeLaPaz also added a pair of hits. O’Hare’s bat stole the show in game two when his fourth inning grand slam erased a 3-1 deficit and put Central in front 5-3. Dutch head coach Adam Carey said that O’Hare’s blast provided a big boost for the team.
“It gave a huge spark to everyone in our dugout. Declan really needed that. He needed that at bat. I don’t know about the home run itself, but just piecing up a ball the way that he did, and it happened to get over the wall, he has done a really good job of staying true to who he is all season in the box and today it started to kind of click and it was really good to see that home run go over the wall for him. That was a huge deal.”
Sunday’s finale of the three game series was canceled due to impending weather and the Dutch return to action Friday with their American Rivers Conference opener at Nebraska Wesleyan University.
Central Men’s Tennis Downs Northwestern (Minn.), Women’s Tennis Falls Twice
A dominant effort in doubles pushed the Central men’s tennis team to a 6-3 win over the University of Northwestern – St. Paul (Minn.) Saturday afternoon, while a short-handed Dutch women’s tennis squad fell in a pair of 5-4 matches.
The Central men started off on the right foot by winning all three doubles matches. AJ Wilkins and Alejo Marcon were 8-4 winners at No. 1, Ayden Fletcher and Alex Slaymaker won 8-4 at No. 2, and Travis Subbert and Ernest Alvarez Chedzoy were 8-2 victors at No. 3. Wilkins earned Central’s highest-rated singles win, taking the No. 2 singles match 6-2, 6-1. Subbert and Slaymaker gave Central two more singles wins at the bottom of the lineup, with Subbert winning 6-4, 6-2 at No. 5 and Slaymaker winning 6-0, 6-1 at No. 6.
The Central women opened the day by losing to Northwestern College (IA.) in the morning, then falling later in the day to the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (Minn.). Becca Vala had the most wins for Central after winning both of her No. 3 singles matches. Against the Red Raiders in the opener she won 6-0, 6-3 and followed up with a 6-1, 6-1 win against the Eagles. Vala and Jenna Mitsuko Mahoney won 8-4 at No. 2 doubles against Northwestern – St. Paul, and Mahoney also won her No. 2 singles contest in that match 2-6, 6-1, 1-0. In the first match, Madi Whalen and Keleigh Hall picked up an 8-4 win at No. 3 doubles, Brianna Lindstrom won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5 singles and Lauren Gano won 6-0, 6-2 at No. 6 doubles. The Dutch played both matches without Jennifer Larson and Jenna Hernandez, who played the majority of the fall season at No. 1 and No. 3 singles.
The Central women’s three-match weekend continues Sunday in Mount Vernon for a 3 p.m. match against Cornell College, while the Dutch men are off until hosting Nebraska Wesleyan University on Wednesday, April 3rd.
