Contact: Nathan Cameron, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7243

WAVERLY, Iowa (May 20, 2021) - The American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Baseball Tournament got underway on the campus of Wartburg College Thursday afternoon, as the No. 3 seeded Loras College baseball team (23-1, 17-15 A-R-C) faced off against the No. 6 seeded Simpson College Storm (18-21, 14-18 A-R-C). After falling to the Storm, the Duhawks bounced back to take a 9-5 victory over the No. 7 seeded Wartburg College Knights (14-28, 12-20 A-R-C) to advance in the tournament and eliminate Wartburg from the postseason. 

Simpson got off to a quick lead in the first game of the day, going up by six runs before Ryan Wohlers cranked a solo home run over the left field wall to put the Duhawks on the board in the bottom of the third inning. 

A pitchers' duel between senior Erik Edminster and Simpson's Brady Held ensued, seeing no runs score for either side for three innings before the Storm tacked on six more runs in the seventh and eighth innings. In the bottom half of the eighth inning, the Duhawks tried to spark a comeback with pinch hitter Ricky Leske reaching base with a lead-off walk. Head coach Carl Tebon called on another pinch hitter in Nelson Melon, who followed by reaching first on a catcher's interference to put two runners on the base path. With one out in the inning, Dakota Church advanced the runners to second and third on a groundout to first base to bring Luke Fennelly to the plate, who loaded the bases on the second walk of the inning. Max Cullen took advantage and drove a single up the middle to score two but the comeback wouldn't be enough as the Storm came out with a 12-3 victory. 

Matt Jeter got the start on the mound against the Storm, putting in 1.1 innings of work, striking out two of the ten batters he faced before Edminster got the call in relief. Edminster threw 6.0 innings and posted three strikeouts to set Hunter Fallon up to close the game. Fallon notched two strikeouts of his own in 1.2 innings pitched. 

Fennelly led the bats for the Duhawks in game one with two of the team's five hits, while Daniel Rogers, Wohlers and Alex Kelsch each added one apiece. 

In a must-win situation in the second game of the day, the Duhawks took on the Knights from Wartburg College in the first round elimination game.

Fennelly got things going immediately for th Duhawks in the bottom of the first inning, hitting a one-out moon shot to left field for the first run of the game. 

After a scoreless second inning for both sides, Loras drove in three more runs in the bottom of the third as Church drove a ball to deep left field with two outs in the inning to put a runner in scoring position with Fennelly due at the plate. Fennelly reached on a walk to bring up Cullen, who hit a hard hit ball at the shortstop, later to advance to second on a throwing error that scored Church and put Fennelly on third. With Cullen on second and Fennelly on third, Dylan Pardoe lined a single up the middle that cleared the bases and give the Duhawks a 4-0 lead after three. 

Another insurance run crossed the plate in favor of the Duhawks in the bottom half of the fourth inning after Joe Egan roped a ball to right field for a one-out double. With two outs in the inning and a runner in scoring position, Kelsch found the gap in left center field for an RBI single to put the Duhawks up by five.

The Knights scored their first run of the game in the top of the sixth inning to cut the deficit to four runs before the Duhawks responded in the bottom half of the same inning to go back up by six with Egan getting things started with a single through the right side. A double off the bat of Wohlers scored Egan, but the play saw Wohlers out at third for the second out of the inning to bring Kelsch back to the plate. Kelsch reached on an error by Wartburg third baseman Keaton Gray and later moved to scoring position after stealing second with Church at the plate. Church reached on an error by the catcher and advanced to second on the throw to see Kelsch score and bring the score to 7-1 after the sixth. 

After two rain delays, the game finally reached the seventh inning where the Knights came out of the breaks with a vengeance and crossed four runs across the plate to come within a narrow two runs of the Duhawks. 

Loras pulled away again in the bottom of the eighth inning after Fennelly walked and stole second to put a runner on second for Cullen, who doubled down the left field line to score Fennelly for the first run of the inning. The final run of the game came by way of an RBI single off the bat of Rogers that scored Cullen from second to see the Duhawks claim a 9-5 victory and advance in the tournament. 

Senior pitcher Marshall Rice had an incredible outing on the mound in what could be his last start wearing the purple and gold. Rice shoved 6.0 innings, allowing only one run on six hits with seven strikeouts in the game. Davis Pasco came in the game after a rain delay to relieve Rice, but faced only four batters before Ethan Peters got the call. Peters notched his sixth save of the season with a 3.0 inning performance, allowing only one hit with two strikeouts. 

The bats were hot for the Duhawks, who recorded 11 total hits in the game and were led by Cullen, Rogers and Egan who each had a hit apiece while Church, Fennelly, Pardoe, Wohlers and Kelsch added one each. The Duhawks posted four doubles, one home run and went 4-4 on stolen bases. 

Due to the wet weather the area saw Thursday evening, the fourth game of the day between the Storm and the Luther College Norse was postponed until Friday morning at 11:00 AM. The Duhawks are set to face the loser of the Simpson/Luther game immediately following the conclusion of the game in hopes to stay in the hunt for A-R-C Championship hardware.