Trevor Talbot March 19, 2009

Dutch fall during return trip

SPRINGFIELD, ILL.—The Central College baseball team dropped an 8-5 decision to Robert Morris-Springfield (Ill.) in a pit-stop Tuesday on its way back from Florida.

The Dutch continued to look good at the plate and out hit Robert Morris 10-9. However, timely hitting continued and defense continued be a problem as Central stranded another 13 base runners and committed three errors.

“Some of these mistakes are really costing us right now,” said head coach Adam Stevens. “With some young guys out there we just need to keep helping them improve and continue to work on these things.”

Sophomore Curt Mick (Albia) started for Central, throwing three innings and giving up two runs. He was followed sophomore Shane Nelson (Iowa City, Regina HS), junior Trevor Talbot (Sioux City, East HS) andjunior Doug Eisenman (Grundy Center). Nelson pitched 2.1 innings, surrendering five runs and got the loss.

After their first three at-bats the Dutch held a 2-0 lead that was short-lived as Robert Morris tied it in the bottom of the third and added three more runs in both the fifth and sixth to take the lead for good.

Freshmen infielders Mike Furlong (Davenport, Assumption HS) and Tyler Wivinis (Downers Grove, Ill., South HS) and sophomore third baseman Anthony Miller (Davenport, Assumption HS) all had a pair of hits.

Central has played eight games in the last five days, but will be off tomorrow before returning to action Friday in Cedar Rapids for its Iowa Conference opener against Coe (6-6 overall) at 3 p.m. The Kohawks were picked to finish third in the conference this season. In 2008 Coe won all three regular season meetings but in the conference tournament Central scored a 5-0 victory.