MOUNT PLEASANT – Iowa Wesleyan College was again unable to solve Grand View University pitching as the Vikings posted a 6-3 win Friday night in Midwest Collegiate Conference play at the Mapleleaf Community Complex.
Grand View’s George Chace pitched a complete game and held the Tigers to eight hits over nine innings as the Vikings won the season series between the teams. IWC dropped to 22-13 overall and 7-3 in the MCC, while the Vikings picked up their seventh win of the year and improved to 4-3 in conference (7-16 overall).
Chace came into the game with a 6.82 earned run average but held the Tigers to three runs while striking out eight. He received help from the Viking offense which staged him an early 2-0 lead and made the most of its seven hits in the game. IWC also was done in by six hit batsmen by its pitchers as well as three errors in the field.
Grand View scored first with a run in the top of the first off Tiger starter Curt Barnes (Sr.-Lone Tree, Iowa) and never trailed in the game. GVU added another run in the second for a 2-0 lead before Edder Morales (Jr.-Barquisimeto, Venezuela) hit a solo home run to left field to get IWC on the board.
The Tigers tied it in the third with an RBI single by Frany Cruz (Sr.-Toa Baja, Puerto Rico), but would struggle at the plate the rest of the game with just four hits over the last six innings. Morales finished with three hits and Cruz and Edwin Jimenez (Sr.-Lawrenceville, Ga.) added two each, but the rest of the lineup was held hitless except for a run-scoring single by Jared Zueck (Jr.-Williamsville, Ill.) in the seventh.
The Vikings took the lead for good in the fifth with a pair of unearned runs off Barnes and then added two more runs in the seventh for a 6-2 lead. IWC got the one run back in the seventh but went quietly in the eighth and ninth innings.
Barnes allowed five hits and four runs (two earned) in six innings for IWC and took the loss. Four of Grand View’s six runs were unearned in the game.
Wesleyan will have to regroup quickly as tomorrow it begins a three-game series against Mount Mercy College. The series starts with a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. at Xavier High School in Cedar Rapids.
For more information regarding the IWC baseball program or any of the Tiger athletic teams, contact sports information director Adam Glatczak (319-385-6306 phone; 319-385-6384 FAX; aglatczak@iwc.edu e-mail) or log on to IWC's athletics web site at www.iwc.edu/athletics.
Box score GVU 6 IWC 3
