The Eagles baseball team falls to second ranked Iowa Central 9-1 on Saturday, May 15. Iowa Central ended Kirkwood`s three-game winning streak.
Kirkwood will now have to play in the loser’s bracket to stay alive in the regional tournament. Kirkwood will now play Northeast Community College.
They will have to beat Mount Mercy and beat Iowa Central to win the conference. The 20th ranked Eagles played one of their worst game of the season and will hope to rebound in their next matchup.
Iowa Central held Kirkwood to only 2 hits in the entire contest. The Eagles are one of the best hitting teams in the NJCAA D11. They had 4 errors in the game vs the Tritons. Kirkwood is now 37-20, while Iowa Central is 35-21.
It was a great game for cf Ryan Wickman with 2 homeruns. He drove in 2 RBI`s and 3 runs. The ss Devon Hurdle had 2 hits and 2 RBI`s. C Ben Gallaher had 3 hits and 2 RBI`s. The 2b Dereck Kay also had 2 hits and 1 RBI. Devon Schewe pitched and got his 6th win of this season. Schewe pitched 7 innings and 7 strike outs. He allowed 1 hit, 1 walk and 1 error.
Matthew Wilkinson finished out the game and got 6 strike outs. He also allowed 1 hit. Iowa Central was very impressive in the win vs Kirkwood.
Luke Llewellyn struggled and allowed 3 runs. He also had 4 walks and only 2 strike outs. After the loss, Llewellyn is now 4-3 this season.
Caleb Fuller relieved Llewellyn and pitched 5.2 innings. He allowed 4 hits and 2 runs. However, Fuller had 5 walks and 2 errors in the loss.
Noah Van Veldhuizen and Sam Goodman closed it out. They both pitched 1 inning and allowed 2 hits. Van Veldhuizen and Goodman combined to allow 4 runs and 5 walks. Goodman stuck out 2 and Van Veldhuizen had 3 strike outs.
For hitting, Trevor Burkhart and Josh Fitzgerald were the only players for Kirkwood to get a hit vs Iowa Central. The Eagles will hope to take down Northeast Community College in their next matchup.