Baseball season comes to a close in GPAC Tournament

SEWARD, Neb. – The 2019 season came to an end for the Dakota Wesleyan University baseball team as they lost to Concordia University and Doane University in the Great Plains Athletic Conference Postseason Tournament on Friday in Seward, Neb.

 In the game against top-ranked Concordia, DWU was first to strike with a run in the second inning. Senior Landon Neugebauer (Mitchell, S.D.) doubled to left-center field to bring Tyler Torres (Novato, Calif.) home.

 The Tiger (23-23, 16-12 GPAC) defense held Concordia off the scoreboard until the fifth frame. The Bulldogs (32-17, 23-5 GPAC) connected on a solo homerun to tie the game.

 However, two innings later, Wes Anderson (Duluth, Minn.) nailed a triple to left-center field to bring home a pair of runs and put the Tigers up 3-1. The Bulldogs answered quickly with a two-run single in the top of the eighth inning to tie the game again.

 With one inning to play, Concordia hit back-to-back homeruns, followed by an RBI single to take its' first lead of the day. DWU was unable to respond in the bottom half of the inning to drop the game, 6-3. 

 Neugebauer finished 2-for-3 with an RBI, while Anderson tacked on two runs batted in after going 1-for-4 at the plate. Kyle Bailey (Brandon, S.D.) finished 2-for-4 and Torres added a run scored. Ethan Davis (Billings, Mont.) pitched eight frames on the bump for the Tigers as he struck out eight batters and allowed two earned runs.

 In the second game of the day, it was the Tigers of Doane that put up the first score of the game with a solo-shot homerun in the bottom of the opening inning. In the second and third frames, Doane (20-30, 12-16 GPAC) put up three more runs to take a 4-0 lead.

 The DWU bats were held in check as Doane allowed just four hits in the game. Doane put up eight more runs in the last four innings to defeat DWU, 12-0.

 Torres led the way as he finished 3-for-4 at the plate, while Anderson went 1-for-5. Gavin Reichmuth (Chandler, Ariz.) pitched four and a third innings as he struck out three batters. Gunnar Johnson (Gresham, Ore.) came in for relief of Reichmuth as he struck out two batters in three and two-third innings pitched.

 The Tigers conclude the season with an overall record of 23-23 and graduate eight seniors.