Castile’s arm leads Storm over Wartburg to split season series

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- Freshman Trey Castile tossed six-strong innings to earn his first career victory inside McBride Field to lift Simpson College baseball to an 11-2 triumph in game one as Wartburg won the series finale 13-1 on Monday.

Castile mowed down seven batters while sprinkling five hits across the diamond in just his second start on home soil. Kolton Arnold and Chris Miller had three hits on the day to pace the Storm (7-11, 4-8 A-R-C) offense.

Game One: Simpson 11, Wartburg 2
The Knights (9-13, 7-9 A-R-C) threatened early in the first after having a runner reach second with no outs. Castile worked past the early scare by forcing three groundouts to keep the game scoreless. In the second, Castile tallied two strikeouts while facing three batters.

Simpson plated a run in the second off a sacrifice fly by Ryan Willis. In the third, the offense executed a two-out rally to grab a 2-0 lead. Kolton Arnold clubbed a double to left center before advancing to third on a wild pitch. While Arnold raced to third, Wartburg's catcher sailed the ball into the outfield to allow him to score.

After another run crossed in the fourth, the Storm piled on eight runs in the fifth on five hits. Josh Breitbarth drove in a pair of runners before Alec Hensley ripped a two-run double. With two additional runs across, Quentin Sefrit closed the frame with a two-run single that he sent rocketing up the middle.

Castile allowed two runs to score in the sixth to break up the shutout, but tallied three strikeouts in the inning to end his day. Ben Rupe worked the seventh to face four batters in relief.

Game Two: Wartburg 13, Simpson 1
The momentum appeared to carry over from game one for head coach Nathan Roling's squad. Cameron Liston struck out four of the first five batters he faced in the contest and Willis provided Liston the lead in the second with an RBI single to score TJ Stephenson.

Liston ran into trouble in the third after Wartburg' Ben DeKruyf started the frame with a triple. The Knights would finish the inning with nine runs on seven hits. Wartburg's offense would cool off in the fourth and fifth before adding four runs in the sixth to widen the gap to 13-1 and force the run-rule into place at the end of the seventh.

Wartburg finished with 10 hits, while the Storm had just five in the loss. Sefrit tallied the lone extra-base knock in the game for Simpson. Zach Dueker made his first appearance of his career on the mound by working 1.1 innings in relief. The freshman recorded one strikeout and had one baserunner reach via walk.

Up Next
American Rivers Conference play resumes this weekend in a road trip to Coe. The first doubleheader will begin Thursday and the four-game series ends Saturday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.