College baseball: Dakota Wesleyan powers past Saints

March 27--Dakota Wesleyan had its bats going, while silencing the Presentation baseball lineup, sweeping the Saints by final scores of 17-4 and 4-0 Wednesday afternoon at Drake Field in Mitchell.

The Tigers pounded out 19 total hits on the day and benefited from seven PC defensive errors to rack up the wins. DWU pitchers, meanwhile, limited the Saints lineup to just six hits through two games.

Presentation slipped to 4-22 with the losses. DWU is now 14-8 after the sweep.

The Tigers set the tone early in the opener, notching nine runs in a monster first inning. DWU sent 13 men to the plate in that stanza, scoring nine runs on five hits and three Presentation errors.

The Saints took advantage of a Tiger error and answered with two runs in the top of the second to cut it to a 9-3 lead, but four Tiger runs in the bottom half of the second and three more in the third set the table for the final tally.

Ryan Baldonado collected two of the Saints' four hits and scored once. Dylan Segula went 1-for-3 with an RBI as part of the two-run second inning for PC.

The Tigers used an opening burst of offense once again in the nightcap, scoring twice in the bottom half of the first inning before tacking on a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the fourth.

DWU pitchers Kevin Hatcher and Patrick Whetham had a combined perfect game going through 4 1/3 innings before Baldonado broke up both the perfect game and the no-hitter with a one-out single in the fifth. Stephen Yant followed with a single of his own, but the Saints could not capitalize on the opportunity.

Presentation opens up North Star Athletic Association play this weekend with a four-game set against Jamestown. The teams will play a pair of doubleheaders starting at 1 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday at Fossum Field.

Presentation 120 100 0 -- 4 4 5

Dak. Wesleyan 943 001 x -- 17 12 4

2B -- Presentation, Ryan Baldonado, Stephen Yant; DWU, Ben Spitznagel, Sam Schumacher 2, Ben Ladner, Neil Nagle. 3B -- DWU, Michael Johnson.

Presentation, Alex Stone, Kyle McLean (3) and Drew Sanders; DWU, Dustin Steckler, Wes Snyder (2), Wil Lutjen (5), Tanner Swets (7) and Ben Ladner and Aaron Bommersbach (2).

Presentation 000 000 0 -- 0 2 2

Dak. Wesleyan 200 200 x -- 4 7 1

2B -- DWU, Sam Schumacher, Jared Neilan.

Presentation, Ryan Wolf, Alex Lunneborg (6) and Albert Castro; DWU, Kevin Hatcher, Patrick Whetham (4), Darin Hager (6), Shaun Dean (7) and Ben Ladner and Aaron Bommersbach (6).

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