Iowa Wesleyan baseball swept by Monmouth

Iowa Wesleyan's Baseball team faced off against Monmouth College Fighting Scots in a doubleheader on Tuesday. Despite strong starts in both games, the visitors proved to be too much for the Tigers, winning both games.

In game one, the Fighting Scots got on off to an early start with Jake Starkey's lead off single, followed by Matt Temaner's triple, getting the visitors on the board early. Harry Sanchez singled bringing in Temaner and giving Monmouth an early 2-0 lead.

The Tigers responded quickly, with back-to-back singles from Dominic Gerace and Nick Salas. Jack De Burgh singled into left field, bringing both Gerace and Salas home, leaving the score 2-2 after the first inning.

After a scoreless second inning, the visiting Scots would bat through the lineup in the third inning scoring six runs. Sanchez, Temaner, Davis, Murphy, Ulfig and Quirk all recorded runs for Monmouth. IW battled to make a comeback in the fourth, with Chazz Brown hitting a homerun; and a Joe Mitchell double brought in Jack De Burgh, cutting the Scots lead to 9-4 after four innings.

Jacob Leonard walked and then advanced on balk in the fifth inning before being driven home by a Salas double to right. The Tigers battled and the lead was just four for the Fighting Scots heading into the sixth, but four runs in the top of the sixth extended Monmouth's lead to 13-5 and the Tigers were unable to mount a comeback, dropping game one.

Nick Salas went 3 of 4 scoring one run with an RBI, while Jack De Burgh had two RBI's and also scored a run. Clayton Lathen pitched three and two thirds innings, striking out two batters in the loss. Matt Datlof picked up the win for the Scots.

Game two began in more of defensive fashion, with no runs scored in the first two innings and just four runs combined through the first five innings. Starkey scored in the top of the third for Monmouth, and a Michael Rojas single through the left side brought home Chazz Brown in the bottom of the fourth as the two teams entered the fifth inning. Nick Salas crushed one over the left field fence for a two run homer bringing in Dominic Gerace to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead after five.

IW was unable to hold onto the lead as the Fighting Scots scored six unanswered runs over the next two innings and went into the eighth inning with a 7-3 lead. Key pitching changes for the visitors and a late flurry of runs in the top of the ninth saw the Fighting Scots take game two 13-3.

Salas notched his seventh homer on the season going 2/3 and now has 30 RBI's on the season. Chazz Brown stole two bases on the night bringing his season total to 16.

Despite striking out eight, Joe Morrison picked up the loss after going five and one third innings, while AJ Hatlestad picked up the win for the Fighting Scots, striking out six through five innings.