McPherson, Kan. – The Tiger Baseball team completed a much needed series sweep over the Dordt University Defenders on Thursday and Friday following a 5 game skid in their first home series of the season.
In game 1 the offense completely dominated the game in all aspects, scoring 25 runs on 17 hits. Kurt Ippolito hit 2 homeruns and recorded 7 RBIs, Braden Young, Braedon Ulrich, Carson Lupton, and James Perales also had multi RBI games with Ulrich notching a homerun. Nick Julian threw 5.2 strong innings pitching to contact with a huge lead keeping Dordt to just 3 runs with only 2 being earned. The Tigers fielded the ball well in this one as well and were simply clicking in all aspects for a 25-3 win.
The Tigers carried the momentum over into game 2 and scored 3 runs right away in the first inning, Dordt answered with 2 runs in the 2nd off of the Tiger started Zane DeBerry, but an electric grandslam off the bat of Gary Ford in the bottom half of the inning gave the Tigers a commanding 7-2 lead keeping the momentum on their side. Garrett Bergmann pitched 4 very good innings out of the bullpen for the Tigers holding Dordt to just 1 run. Braedon Ulrich’s 2nd homerun of the day brought 2 more runs across for the Tigers as they would take game 2 by a score of 9-3
The Tigers once again got on the board early in game 3 with 2 homeruns in the 1st inning, a 2 run blast from Braedon Ulrich for his 3rd of the series and a solo shot from Gary Ford, his 2nd of the series. Dordt scored 1 run in the 3rd inning and then had back to back big innings in the 5th and 6th scoring 7 runs total. The Tigers saw themselves down 8-4 in the 6th and needed to get something going, Gary Ford hit his 3rd homer of the series to cut the deficit to 3 and then a pinch hit single from Noel Aquino cut the decficit to 8-6. Marcus Alf would throw a 1-2-3 scoreless 7th inning for the Tigers in his collegiate debut to give the Tigers hope to win the game in the 7th. With 2 runners on base, Braedon Ulrich stepped up to the plate and delivered once again, his 4th homerun of the series ended it for the Tigers in walkoff fashion to clinch the series win by a score of 9-8
Game 4 would be our first pitchers dual of the series, the Tigers only 2 runs of the game came in the 2nd inning on a Carson Lupton RBI groundout a Dordt error. Justin Evasovic pitched incredible for the Tigers, working out of a bases loaded 0 outs jam twice, striking out 10, and allowing just 1 run in the 7th as he went the distance and propelled the Tigers to a 2-1 win and the series sweep.
The Tigers are now 5-7 on the season and will gear up for their first conference series next weekend at home against Oklahoma City University.
