Baseball drops doubleheader at Central

PELLA, Iowa – Jake Barr enjoyed a four-hit day but little else went right for the Simpson baseball team on Tuesday as Central swept the doubleheader, 8-4 and 8-1.

Barr went 3-for-4 with a double and three runs scored in game one but the Storm (10-7, 4-4 Iowa Conference) allowed six runs in the first two innings and couldn't recover.

Brett Crable drove in Barr on a single in the top of the first to give Simpson 1-0 lead but, the advantage was short lived. Starter Adam Richman hit three batters and threw three wild pitches as Central scored three in the first. A walk, a hit batter and another wild pitch led to three more in the second as Simpson trailed 6-1.

Simpson got two back on a passed ball and an RBI single by Jake Scieszinski in the third, but run scoring hits by Adam Ariola and Robbie Rushing in the sixth put the game out of reach.

Rushing got the win on the mound for the Dutch (11-6, 3-3), striking out eight in the complete-game effort.

The defense faltered in game two as Simpson committed seven errors resulting in four unearned runs.

Scieszinski and Jake Esdohr provided the lone spark for the Simpson offense in the nightcap when Esdohr singled to lead off the second and later scored on Scieszinski's base hit to left. That tied the game 1-1, but that was as close as Simpson got.

Simpson managed just three hits against Matt Schissel the rest of the way as Central slowly added to its lead with two runs in the fourth, one in the fifth, one in the sixth, two in the seventh and one in the eighth.

Michael Wilson went 4 1/3 in the loss, giving up four runs – three earned – on five hits.

The Storm go to non-conference foe Grinnell for a single game Wednesday at 3 p.m. The Pioneers (7-9) have lost 3 of 4.