WATERLOO – Heavy rains and some brief lightning in the Waterloo area Monday night caused the suspension of the Midwest Collegiate Conference Baseball Tournament game at Riverfront Stadium between Iowa Wesleyan College and Viterbo (Wis.) University, with the two teams tied at 5-5 in the sixth inning.
The two teams will resume their elimination game Tuesday morning at 11 a.m., picking the game up with IWC batting in the top of the sixth. The winner will then face Grand View University at approximately 1 p.m., and could face GVU again at roughly 5 p.m. if it can defeat the Vikings in Game 9 of the tourney.
The #1 seed Tigers and third-seeded V-Hawks were called off the field Monday night after the fifth inning when winds picked up and lightning was spotted in the sky behind the stadium. Umpires ordered the tarpaulin put on the field, and shortly after the skies opened up. After waiting for about an hour, the decision was made to postpone the remainder of the game until Tuesday morning.
Viterbo opened the game with five runs in the bottom of the first inning, reaching its first six batters on base. Five of those came against IWC starter Chris Walls (Sr.-North Liberty, Ind.), who was unable to record an out and was credited with all five runs.
Travis Parker (Sr.-Taylor Ridge, Ill.) came on for Walls with no outs and the bases loaded in the first and allowed a single to the first batter he faced. From that point on, though, Parker was terrific, retiring 15 straight batters and keeping the Tigers in the game after a shaky start.
Wesleyan made a dent in the lead with three runs in the second, including an RBI double by Dick Bargewell (Sr.-Burlington, Wash.) and a run-scoring ground out by Michael Rosa (Fr.-Santiago, Dominican Republic). All three runs against V-Hawk starter Drew Farrell were unearned and came after two errors by the Viterbo infield in the second.
The Tigers then tied it with two in the top of the fifth. Adam DuBuque (Jr.-St. Louis, Mo.) and Jared Zueck (Sr.-Williamsville, Ill.) led off with doubles, with DuBuque coming in to score after Zueck’s bloop double down the right field line. Zueck then scored when Josh Sturges (Jr.-Murray, Utah) hit a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
Midwest Collegiate Conference Commissioner Rick Sanders said the goal is for the tournament to be completed Tuesday, weather permitting. If necessary, the tourney could be pushed back one more day before a winner must be determined and submitted to the NAIA for national postseason play.
A live online audio broadcast of the remainder of the game, as well as any further IWC tourney games, will be available at www.iwc.edu/onlinemedia.
