Creger paces offense in loss at Central

PELLA, Iowa -- The Simpson baseball team could not overcome an early deficit on Tuesday and eventually fell to Central, 8-3, on the road.

The Storm (11-14, 3-10 American Rivers) gave up an early 2-0 lead in the first inning, but were able to chip away at the deficit and got a run back in the second.

Devin Creger made it to third and Brady Held was on first, Held took off for second to steal and Creger was able to make it home on the throw for his 12th run of the year.

The Dutch (17-10, 7-9 A-R-C) added two more runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to make it 5-1, before Simpson added one in the sixth to stop the run. Creger ripped a triple to land on third once again and plated Nathan Carlin on the hit.

Central place three runs on the scoreboard in the bottom of the frame to extend the lead to 8-2.

In the seventh, the Storm would load the bases with no outs, but would only push one run across and would not score again for the rest of the contest. Josh Breitbarth was able to lift a ball to the outfield for the sacrifice fly.

Creger paced the team with three hits and Breitbarth had two. Kolton Arnold snapped his hit streak today which ended at 12 games.

Brett Kauzlarich tossed 3.1 innings for Simpson and was handed his third loss of the season.

After the last 11 of 12 games on the road, the Storm return to McBride Field for a weekend series against Coe. The Friday evening matchup will begin at 6 p.m.