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

DECORAH, Iowa (Mar. 25, 2022) - After receiving their highest-ever national ranking by d3baseball.com, the No. 15 Loras College baseball team (16-1, 0-1 A-R-C) made their way north to Decorah, Iowa to square up against the reigning American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) Tournament Champions in the Luther College Norse (8-5, 1-0 A-R-C). The Duhawks battled the elements that comes with early spring in the midwest as the game saw a delay in play for nearly 90 minutes due to snow and heavy winds as the Norse walked away with the win in the first game of three in the series. 

Luther put two on the board in the bottom of the first inning before both sides fell silent in the next two innings. In the top of the fourth inning, trailing by two, the Duhawks pulled back within one as Daniel Rogers drove a double into left field with one out in the inning to bring up Dylan Pardoe who followed Rogers's lead and hit a double of his own to left field, bringing Rogers home for the Duhawks' lone run of the game before play was delayed in the bottom half of the inning due to wintry weather. 

The Norse widened their lead in the bottom of the fourth inning on a two-run homer before doing the same in the bottom of the fifth inning to take a five run lead. The game came to a close in the bottom of the seventh inning as the Norse scored five more to win by the 10-run rule to bring the game to its final at 11-1. 

Nick DiBenedetto got the start on the mound and threw 3.0 innings, allowing four runs on five hits with a strikeout before Erik Edminster came in after the delay. Edminster dished a pair of innings, allowing two runs on three hits with two strikeouts before Danny Hiemer pitched the last inning of the game, allowing five runs on two hits.

The Duhawks had four hits in the game with Dakota Church, Chris Costantino, Pardoe and Rogers each going 1-for-3 at the plate with Pardoe tallying an RBI. 

The series picks back up on Sunday, Mar. 27 in Decorah as the two teams are set to close out the series with a 1:00 PM doubleheader.