GAME ONE BOX SCORE

GAME TWO BOX SCORE

Austin, Texas – Trey Pledger hurled 2.1 scoreless frames in leading the Concordia University Texas baseball team to a 4-3 victory in the nightcap of a twinbill against Dallas on Tuesday, March 12 at Tornado Field. The Crusaders took the opener by an 8-7 decision to earn the split.

Dallas took advantage of a costly Tornado error to score two runs in the top of the second inning in the nightcap. Trevor Allred belted a double to right that scored Mark Carlson and Rene Vargas to put the Crusaders on the board first for the second straight game.

Despite surrendering two unearned runs, Concordia came right back. The Tornados tied the game in the third on a Connor Bertsch single and took a 3-2 lead in the fourth when Trevor Harlos hit a sacrifice fly to center that plated Toran Tillotson.

After Dallas knotted up the score for the second time by having Carlson draw a walk with the bases loaded that forced in Trevor Keele from third, Trey Pledger came in and got out of a bases-loaded jam by fanning the next batter.

Pledger then stayed in control for two more frames to help set up a wild seventh for the Tornado offense. Casey Worsham started the bottom of the final frame by earning a free pass to first and was able to move into scoring position when a balk was called. Brent Schaekel followed up with a single through the left side, allowing Worsham to move over to third and set up an unprecedented finish.

With Brandon Hollier at the plate, catcher Dylan Wadyko threw the ball wild into left field while attempting to pick off Worsham at third. Worsham was able to easily come home to give the Tornados a walk-off win.

Concordia's Pledger picked up the win and improved to 2-0 by only allowing one hit over 2.1 scoreless frames. He struck out three and only issued one walk. Keele of Dallas suffered the loss and dropped to 1-4 after giving up two hits and one run, which was unearned, over two innings of work. He struck out four and walked only one.

In game one, Dallas quickly scored two runs in the top of the first. The Crusaders got a single from Alex Thornton followed by a two-run homer from Keele that graced over the fence in left center.

Concordia, however, rallied by scoring once in the bottom of the second and twice in the third to take a 3-2 lead. Bertsch and Chance Leissner each hit a sacrifice fly to put the Tornados ahead by a run.

Dallas then came right back and regained the lead for good, pushing across two runs in the fourth and four in the fifth. Maness would do most of the damage offensively by hitting an RBI single that put the Crusaders ahead 4-3 before later belting another single that sent in two insurance runs to make it 8-3.

The Tornados attempted to rally and came within a run in the bottom of the seventh when Schaekel singled and advanced to second on a late, wild throw by the Crusader pitcher that allowed Jon McManemin to score with two outs. Reliever Jacob Burns, however, got out of the jam by inducing a groundout on the next play that ended the game.

Colin Butschek took the loss for Concordia after giving up four runs, which were all earned, over 3.2 frames. He struck out one and also allowed six hits to fall to 0-3. Dallas' Kurt Doerries picked up the win to move his ledger to 1-1 on the year. He did not yield a hit in two innings of work and surrendered two runs while striking out one and walking three.

Concordia visits Hardin-Simmons for a three-game series this weekend. The first game is slated to begin on Friday, March 15 at 7 p.m.
-agate-
Dallas                          200     240     0     8    12    4
Concordia                   012     012     1     7     9     1
     Dallas: Andrew Brossert, Kurt Doerries (3), Martin Cronin (5), Jacob Burns (6) and Jake Pierce.
     Concordia: Colin Butschek, Trey Pledger (4), Aaron Dunahoe (5), Bobby Jones and Tyler Bain.

Dallas (11-11)            020     010     0     3     7     1
Concordia (11-11)     011     100     1     4     6     1
     Dallas: Joshua Crapps, Chris Schierhorn (3), Trevor Keele (5) and Dylan Wadyko.
     Concordia: Cade Radley, Trey Pledger (5) and Matt Smith.