Bats carry Tigers to win in MCC Tournament opener

Todd Christensen knocked in three runs and Roderick Barcelo hit a two-run home run and the Iowa Wesleyan College baseball team opened the Midwest Collegiate Conference Tournament with a 10-5 win over Waldorf College Tuesday night at A.J. Spiegel Park.?

Barcelo?s home run keyed a five-run fourth inning for the top-seeded Tigers, who never looked back in winning their 12th straight game. IWC advanced to a game today at 3:30 p.m. against number-two seed Grand View University, with the winner in the driver?s seat for the tournament title and the MCC?s automatic berth to the NAIA National Tournament. The winner of Wednesday?s game will advance to the championship round and will need just one more win to clinch the conference title, while the loser will have to win three straight games to come back for the title.?

IWC (31-18 overall) piled up 14 hits against four different pitchers for the fourth-seeded Warriors, who picked up their first loss in the tourney after opening the day with a 2-0 win over fifth-seed Ashford University. The Tigers took the lead with five runs in the fourth and added two more runs in both the sixth and seventh innings.?

Barcelo had the biggest blow in the fourth, following an RBI single by Lino Sampson by hammering the first pitch from Warriors starter Shaun McGuire for a two-run blast to left-center to make it 4-1. Later in the inning it was Christensen coming through with a two-run double down the left field line, giving Wesleyan a 6-1 lead.?

Waldorf came back with two runs in the fourth and another score in the fifth to make it 6-4, but the Tigers responded with four more runs over the next two innings. Christensen and Marco Prieto both singled in runs and Josh Sturges hit a booming double to left-center to score another run.?

The run support was enough for IWC ace Jorge Martinez even on a night when he didn?t have his best. Martinez allowing 12 hits and five runs (four earned). He saw his scoreless innings streak stopped at 30 2/3 innings when Spencer Popinga hit a solo home run for a 1-0 Waldorf lead in the bottom of the first inning, and the 12 hits allowed were two more than Martinez had allowed in his last four games and 30 innings combined.?

Martinez still struck out eight batters and battled through seven innings, picking up his ninth win of the year. Justin Peterson finished the final two innings and did not allow a run.?

Neil Yemm led IWC with three hits, while Prieto, Sampson and Jay Olson all added two hits each. All nine Tiger starters reached base at least once in the game, while eight of the nine had at least one hit.?

McGuire took the loss for Waldorf, going four innings and allowed six runs (four earned) on seven hits. Logan Nelson and Kean Paxton both led the Warriors with three hits each. While IWC will play at 3:30 on Wednesday, Waldorf will now play at 7 p.m. Wednesday night in an elimination game. The Warriors will face the winner of the first game Wednesday, an elimination game between Ashford and number-three seed Clarke University.

BOX SCORE

IWC 10, WALDORF 5

R H E

IWC ? 010 502 200 - 10 14 1

Waldorf ? 100 210 100 - 5 12 2

AB R H RBI BB SO PO A LOB

IWC ? Christensen, Todd 2b 5 1 2 3 0 1 1 0 2; Sturges, Josh ss 5 0 1 1 0 0 1 3 1; Mendoza, Michael cf 5 1 1 0 0 0 2 0 1; Koeppel, Drew 1b 4 0 0 0 1 1 10 0 0; Sampson, Lino dh 3 3 2 1 1 1 0 0 0; Barcelo, Roderick lf 3 1 1 2 1 0 1 0 1; Yemm, Neil rf 5 1 3 1 0 0 2 0 0; Prieto, Marco c 4 0 2 1 1 0 10 2 1; Olson, Jay 3b 4 0 2 0 1 0 0 1 0 ? Totals 38 10 14 9 5 3 27 7 8

Waldorf ? Padgett, Tevin cf 5 1 1 0 0 2 5 1 0; Nelson, Logan 3b. 3 1 3 1 1 0 0 1 0; Popinga, Spenser rf 5 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 3; McGuire, Shaun p/dh 4 1 2 1 0 1 1 1 0; Surdez, Todd 2b 4 1 1 0 0 0 4 5 1; Paxton, Kean 1b 4 0 3 0 0 0 12 1 0; Carr, Zach lf 4 0 0 1 0 2 0 1 0; Dunford, Jeremy c 3 0 1 0 0 1 4 1 0; Zuniga, Carlos ph 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1; Palmer, Shawn ss 3 0 0 0 0 2 1 5 2; Kondo, Zack ph 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ? Totals 37 5 12 4 1 10 27 18 7

IP H R ER BB SO AB BF

IWC ? Martinez, Jorge (W, 9-1) 7.0 12 5 4 0 8 30 31; Peterson, Justin 2.0 0 0 0 1 2 7 8

Waldorf ? McGuire, Shaun (L, 5-3) 4.0 7 6 4 1 1 19 20; Woods, Bobby 1.2 4 2 2 1 0 8 9; Nelson, Dallas 1.0 1 2 2 1 0 3 6; Krekling, Kasey 2.1 2 0 0 2 2 8 10

E - Yemm; Padgett; Surdez. DP - Waldorf 1. LOB - IWC 8; Waldorf 7. 2B - Christensen; Sturges; McGuire. 3B - Padgett. HR - Barcelo; Popinga. HBP - Sampson. SH - Barcelo. SF - Nelson, L.. SB - Mendoza, Mi.; Lloyd; Nelson, L.. CS - Yemm; Nelson, L.; Paxton.