TUCSON, Ariz. -- Trey Shigley (JR, Bartlesville, Okla.) hit a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh inning to score Caleb Birkey (SO, Granger, Ind.) and give Indiana Wesleyan University baseball a walk-off victory for their first win of the season in Tucson, Arizona.
Indiana Wesleyan won 3-2 in the second game of the doubleheader vs. Dakota Wesleyan. DWU earned a 10-6 win in the opening contest.
Cameron Screeton (JR, Rochester, Ind.) hit a sac fly in the bottom of the first inning of game two to tie the score at 1-1 and Jack Collingsworth, Jr. (SO, Apple Valley Calif.) drilled an RBI single in the fifth to put the Wildcats in the lead 2-1. That lead was short lived as DWU tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the sixth. The Dakota Wesleyan run set up the Shigley heroics in the seventh inning.
Freshman reliever Brandon Watkins (FR, Indianapolis, Ind.) picked up the win for the Wildcats in relief. Screeton, Birkey, and Shigley all had RBIs in the win.
Indiana Wesleyan fell 10-6 in the opening contest with Dakota Wesleyan. Collingsworth, Jr. put IWU ahead early with an RBI groundout in the top of the first. But Dakota Wesleyan answered with four runs in the home half.
The Wildcats closed the gap to 4-3 in the third inning with a RBI single from Preston Fugita (JR, Littleton, Colo.) and an AJ Harris (SO, Temecula, Calif.) squeeze bunt. Birkey made things happen all by himself in the fourth inning to tie the score at 4-4. Birkey hit a single, stole second, stole third, and then stole home.
Once again Dakota responded with a big inning as they scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth to take a 9-4 advantage. Indiana Wesleyan was able to get two of those runs back when Logan Tomlinson (FR, Trabuco Canyon, Calif.) clubbed a two-run double for a 9-6 score. Dakota Wesleyan plated one more run in the sixth for the 10-6 final score.
Fugita led the Wildcats with two hits and one RBI while Tomlinson added one hit and two RBI. Bryan Beachy (JR, Kokomo, Ind.) took the loss on the mound as he surrendered eight runs in 3.1 innings.
The doubleheader with Dakota Wesleyan completes the Tucson Invitational for Indiana Wesleyan. IWU returns to campus after the games and will next play IU Southeast on Wednesday in New Albany, Indiana.
