IW baseball splits at Principia

The Iowa Wesleyan baseball took on the Panthers of Principia College on Saturday. The Tigers were looking to bounce back from their games against Greenville earlier in the week. IW dropped game one against Principia by a score of 5-4, but followed with their first SLIAC win in a 6-4 victory over the Panthers.

The Tigers had to come from behind in game one after Principia took a 2-0 advantage in the second inning. Iowa Wesleyan answered with two runs of their own to tie the game up in the top of the third. Cullen Papenhagen came up big for the Tigers with a two out, two run homerun. Principia regained the lead in the bottom of the third, and the next three innings were scoreless for both teams. Iowa Wesleyan took their first lead of the game in the top of the seventh with the help of two walks and two hits. Dominic Gerace and Jacob Leonard each stole bases in the inning, and Papenhagen drew a walk to bring Gerace in for the first run. Ricardo Mollison drove in the final run with an RBI single. IW was unable to hold on to their lead. Principia hit a two run homerun to secure the walk off win over the Tigers.

Cullen Papenhagen led Iowa Wesleyan at the plate after going 2-3 and driving in three runs. Papenhagen was on the mound for the Tigers and struck out four batters.

Iowa Wesleyan took the early lead in game two, scoring runs in the first three innings. The Tigers scored one run in the first with the help of one hit and an error by the Panthers. Michael Rojas led off the second inning with a double and came around to score IW's second run off a double by Dominic Gerace. Iowa Wesleyan went up 3-0 in the third after an RBI single by Rojas. Principa cut the IW lead to one in the bottom of the third with two runs on two hits. The Tigers came back with three runs in the top of the sixth after a three run home run by Nick Salas. The Panthers threatenen to take the lead again, but Iowa Wesleyan held them to just two runs in the bottom of the seventh. After scoreless eighth and ninth innings, IW picked up their first SLIAC win with the 6-4 win.

Michael Rojas finished 2-5 at the plate, and Nick Salas led the Tigers with three RBIs. Clayten Lathen pitched six innings as the starter and struck out four batters.