Iowa Wesleyan baseball has 3-0 week

ELGIN, Ill. — Things are heating up for the Iowa Wesleyan baseball team. The Tigers returned to action last week after a seven-day break due to weather, and they went a perfect 3-0 in nonconference play.

Iowa Wesleyan began the week with a dominant road win on Tuesday over former St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foe Westminster College, winning 16-8. The Tigers followed that with a pair of wins at Judson University on Wednesday, winning 6-4 and 5-3.

On Tuesday, the Tigers took a 4-0 lead after the second inning, but Westminster stormed back to take a 5-4 advantage after four frames.

Down 5-4 after four, the Tigers got to work again, scoring five runs in the top of the fifth, thanks in part to two two-run home runs, one by David Amaya and one by Sage Bonner.

Westminster cut the lead back down to 9-5 with a run of their own in the bottom of the fifth, but that’s as close as they would get. Iowa Wesleyan went on to score seven more runs by the time the game was over.

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Sucre Guzman had a monster day at the plate for the Tigers, going 5-for-6 with a double and four RBIs. Derek Marrufo was 4-for-5 with three RBIs. Amaya and Carlos Vicente each ended the day with three RBIs as well.

Cauy Massner got the win on the mound, giving up eight runs (seven earned) on 10 hits and one walk, while striking out eight batters over seven innings of work.

Iowa Wesleyan scored the first six runs of Game 1 on Wednesday at Judson. The Tigers plated three runs in the third inning and three more in the seventh.

Judson did make it scary for the Tigers with a four-run bottom of the seventh. The tying run was at the plate, but a ground out to short stop ended it.

Amaya went 3-for-3 in the win for Iowa Wesleyan. Riley Rankin was 1-for-2 with two RBIs. Bonner and Guzman each knocked in a run as well.

Luis Ayesa threw a complete game to pick up the win. He gave up four earned runs on four hits over seven innings. Ayesa struck out 12 Judson batters.

The Tigers got off to a hot start again in Game 2, scoring one run in the second inning and two in the third to take a 3-0 advantage. Judson, however responded with three of their own in the next two at-bats.

In a game that went just five innings, Iowa Wesleyan needed to get some runs in the fifth, tied 3-3. They would get two, scoring one on an RBI double by Julian Figeuroa and one on an RBI single by Bonner.

Bonner led the Tiger offense in the final game of the week, going 1-for-2 with two RBIs. Rankin had a solo home run. Figueroa and Holvin Catala each had one RBI.

Pedro Ramirez pitched all five innings for the Tigers, giving up three earned runs on seven hits and two walks, while striking out six batters.