Ben Tressel March 31, 2009

Luther outlasts Central in frigid twinbill

DECORAH--Wintry weather left the Central College bats cold Tuesday as the Dutch baseball squad threatened more than scored while getting swept by 6-3, 3-1 by Iowa Conference rival Luther College. “Conditions were brutal,” said Dutch coach Adam Stevens. “It was really hard for either team to string together a couple hits in a row. We threatened a lot but we just couldn’t get the big hit.”

Neither team managed to muster up much offense in the doubleheader, but instead relied on mistakes to push runs across the plate. Out of a combined nine runs in game one, only three were earned. Luther (11-4 overall, 3-0 conference) put up four runs in the second inning of game one while hitting only one ball out of the infield thanks, in part, to a pair of errors by the Dutch.

Freshman Corey Eisenmann (Bloomingdale, Ill., Driscoll Catholic HS) (1-2) started game one for the Dutch, going 5.2 innings and allowing 10 hits, striking out one and walking two while giving up only two earned runs.

“Eisenmann did an outstanding job,” said Stevens. “He went toe-to-toe with one of the best pitchers in the league and threw really well.”

Junior Trevor Talbott (Sioux City, East HS) (0-2) got the start in game two, surrendering only two runs on three hits in four innings of work, but the Dutch had their own struggles at the plate recording only four hits of their own.

“On a day like this when it’s a tough day to hit, you’ve got to execute the small things well,” Stevens said. “We didn’t do a good job of that at all.”

An offensive exception was junior outfielder Ben Tressel (Dubuque, Hempstead HS), wholed Central at the plate with four hits on the day, including a 3-for-3 effort in game one. Freshman second baseman Mike Furlong (Davenport, Assumption HS) managed to hit safely in each game and extended his hit streak to 11 games.

Central (8-10 overall, 3-3 conference) will travel to Indianola Friday to begin a three-game series with Simpson College (11-7 overall, 4-2 conference), playing a nine-inning game at 6 p.m. with a 1 p.m. twinbill Saturday. The Dutch were 3-1 against the Storm last season in games that were all decided by two runs or less, winning their final meeting of the season 11-9 at the conference tournament in Cedar Rapids.

“You can’t get too down in this league because there’s always another good team coming next,” said Stevens. “That’s certainly the case for us this week.”