Tiger baseball swept at Spalding

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It wasn’t a fun four-gamer for the Iowa Wesleyan baseball team when it took on Spalding University in St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play over the weekend. Spalding took all four games from the Tigers to plummet Iowa Wesleyan in the SLIAC standings.

The Golden Eagles took a doubleheader on Sunday, winning 10-4 and 14-2. They followed that by beating the Tigers 8-2 and 11-1 on Monday.

The toughest pill for Iowa Wesleyan to swallow might have come in Game 1 of the four-game stretch. The Tigers held a 3-0 lead through five-and-a-half innings, thanks to a pair of home runs and a great start by Cauy Massner on the bump.

Massner was cruising through the first five frames. The only runs of the game had come off Tiger home runs, a solo shot by Dominic Gerace in the third inning and a two-run blast by Nick Salas in the fifth.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Massner struck out the leadoff guy swinging, but he reached on an error by the catcher. That would lead to back-to-back Spalding singles and a go-ahead three-run homer. The next batter singled, and Massner was out of the ballgame.

Spalding would put up one more run in the sixth inning, and added five in the seventh to take a 10-3 lead.

Iowa Wesleyan scored three runs in the ninth, all coming on Spalding errors.

In Game 2 on Sunday, the Tigers scored first once again, putting up an early run on a Salas double, which scored Jake Leonard. Spalding answered by scoring 14 runs over the next three innings.

In Game 3, Spalding had an 8-0 lead after four innings. Corbin Broeker brought home Chris D’Elia on a double in the fifth, and Salas hit a solo blast in the seventh.

In Game 4, Spalding held an 11-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, where Iowa Wesleyan would score its only run, on a Leonard single, which plated Minami Matsumoto.

The Tigers are now 3-9 on the season. They head to Westminster College on April 24.