Sefrit, Stephenson power offense to win first game of twinbill

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- Despite it being April Fools' Day, it's no laughing matter that the Simpson College baseball team played at McBride Field for the first time in nearly 700 days on Thursday. The return home ended with a doubleheader split against Loras.

Simpson (5-7, 2-4 A-R-C) won a nailbiter, 4-3, in the opener before dropping a high-scoring affair, 15-11, to close out the first set of doubleheaders with the Duhawks (9-5, 6-4 A-R-C).

TJ Stephenson finished a double shy of a cycle and Quentin Sefrit connected on a homer to highlight the first game. Noah Sacco and Brennen Lemke both had doubles in the second, while Brett Kauzlarich struckout 11 batters in the nightcap.

Game One: Simpson 4, Loras 3
The Storm tallied a run in the bottom of the second after Stephenson hit a two-out triple to deep center and was brought home on an error by a Loras defender.

After the Duhawks scored two in the third off a Simpson error, the Storm regained the lead in the bottom half of the frame. Sefrit drove a ball beyond the left field fence with a runner on to put the Storm ahead 3-2.

Over the next two frames, Colton Major allowed just one batter to reach base and tallied two strikeouts to keep the lead intact.

Loras knotted the game at 3-3 with an RBI double in the sixth, but the runner was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.

Stephenson belted his first career home run in the bottom of the sixth that proved to be the game-winner.

The Duhawks did not go away quietly in the final stanza. Loras loaded the bases with no outs before Brady Held received a ground ball that started a double play by getting the lead runner out at home. Keaton DeKock retrieved the throw and gunned the runner down at first base. Held followed up the play with a strikeout to grab the save.

Game Two: Loras 15, Simpson 11
The offenses put it in high gear at the start of game two after Loras tallied four runs in the first and Simpson answered with three.

The Duhawks padded the lead with two more in the second before the Storm added two in the third. Simpson tied the game in the fifth with a bases-loaded walk and took the advantage in the sixth as Brennen Lemke and Sefrit had back-to-back run-scoring hits.

Loras would respond in a big way by spreading nine runs across the seventh and eighth innings to hold a 15-8 tilt. The Storm held a late rally in the eighth to score three runs and had the momentum with the bases loaded, but could not push any more runners across to fall.

Kauzlarich came into the contest in the second and worked 5.2 innings with just one earned run allowed. In the fourth, he struck out the side to highlight his afternoon. Held and Lemke both had four hits in the contest, while Sacco had three from his leadoff spot.

Up Next
Both teams return to McBride Field to finish off the four-game series on Saturday. Game one begins at 2 p.m.