Baseball splits IIAC opening day
May 8, 2008

The Loras College baseball team won the opening game of the tournament in Cedar Rapids over Luther College on Thursday before falling in the night game to Wartburg.

At Daniels Park in Game 1, Matt Barilla threw seven innings and earned the win in a 6-3 victory over the Norse. Offensively, Adam Gross tripled in two runs in the fourth to break a 2-2 tie. The Duhawks added one more in the fourth when Olberding singled home Gross. Later, Gross added a sacrifice fly in the sixth to extend the lead. Luther closed the gap to 6-4 in the bottom of the seventh, but Barilla pitched out of trouble twice. Brad Joniec earned a two inning save in relief of Barilla. Don Pirkle was 3-for-5 in the win as well.

In Game 2 at Veterans Memorial Stadium, #5 Loras fell to #1 Wartburg 5-2. The Duhawks held a slim 2-1 lead until the bottom of the fifth inning when the Knights put together a two out rally that included five singles. The most costly one was a flair into shallow left center field by Kyle Jones that dropped between shortstop Nick Olberding and center fielder Adam Gross and plated three runs. Kevin Moriarty was solid in eight innings of work, striking out five, including the first two batters of the game-turning Wartburg fifth. Don Pirkle had two more hits and Ben Kuebel added two as well. Loras threatened in the top of the ninth when they loaded the bases. Designated hitter Clark Egdorf nearly tied the game on the first pitch he saw from reliever Nate Rost with a two out extra base hit over the right fielder's head, but Kyle Jones again stepped up and tracked down the well-hit ball.

Loras plays #2 Simpson College at 1:00 PM on Friday at Veterans Memorial Stadium.