Simpson delivers walk-off win to highlight senior day

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- Déjà vu occurred on Saturday as Simpson College baseball won its first game of a twinbill on a walk-off victory and dropped its second to Dubuque. The Storm won 3-2 and lost 5-1 to close out its home slate.

Less than 24 hours after Simpson (13-21, 10-18 A-R-C) won in their last at-bat, Kolton Arnold played the hero in the opener to score Josh Breitbarth to win two-of-four against the Spartans (14-21, 12-16 A-R-C).

Before game two, Simpson honored its eight seniors: Josh Breitbarth, Alec Hensley, Brent Pendgraft, Noah Sacco, Jonathan Sailstad, Quentin Sefrit, Jonathan Shelabarger and Brandon Urias.

Game One: Simpson 3, Dubuque 2
Trey Castile took the mound and made his presence known right away with back-to-back strikeouts to begin the game. He recorded 10-straight outs before allowing his first baserunner in the fourth.

The Storm provided Castile some offense as Brady Held walked and advanced to second on a wild pitch to start the fourth. Breitbarth ripped a single to left and Held hustled around third to score.

Dubuque performed a two-out rally in the fifth to knot the game at 1-1. Castile got two quick outs, before an RBI single snapped the shutout.

Arnold led the sixth off by reaching second on an error by the third baseman. Brennen Lemke took advantage of the mistake and roped a double to left to score his teammate.

The back-and-forth scoring continued with the Spartans tying the game at 2-2 in the seventh on a sacrifice fly.

With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Breitbarth singled up the middle and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Arnold felt it was time to end the first game and sent a ball back up the middle for the walk-off triumph.

Brett Kauzlarich earned the win in 2.1 innings of work in relief. Breitbarth and Arnold combined for five of the team's nine hits.

Game Two: Dubuque 5, Simpson 1
Dubuque wasted little time in capturing a lead by scoring twice in the second inning. The Spartans padded its lead to 4-0 in the fourth with the help of three hits.

Arnold tallied an RBI in the fifth to trim the deficit. The Storm had an opportunity to plate a few runs in the eighth with their first two runners reaching base. Dubuque tallied three-straight outs to prevent a comeback.

The Simpson pitching staff of Brady Leonard, Zach Hollingsworth and Kauzlarich struck out 11 batters during the contest.

Up Next
The Storm end the regular season next week in a four-game series at Central. The first twinbill begins at 1 p.m. on Friday in Pella, Iowa.