MOUNT VERNON, Ohio -- The regular season is in the books for Indiana Wesleyan University baseball as they completed the schedule today at No. 21-ranked Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio).
Indiana Wesleyan won the first two games in the series with 4-1 wins in both ends of a doubleheader at Wildcat Field on Saturday. But Mount Vernon Nazarene evened the four game season series with a pair of victories Tuesday.
Mount Vernon Nazarene won the first game today by a 14-3 score and completed the sweep with a 9-5 win in game two.
The Cougars jumped on the Wildcats in the first game with 14 runs in the first three innings. IWU finally cracked the scoreboard with a Trey Shigley (JR/Bartlesville, Okla.) bases loaded walk in the fourth inning. Caleb Birkey (SO/Granger, Ind.) drew a walk with the bases full for the second Wildcat run in the sixth inning and Preston Fugita (JR/Littleton, Colo.) grounded out to short to plate a run later in the inning to account for the final IWU run.
In game two, Mount Vernon Nazarene scored the first three runs to lead 3-0 after three innings. Indiana Wesleyan cut that deficit to a single run in the fourth inning with a two-run home off the bat of senior Phillip Lougheed (SR/Swartz Creek, Mich.).
In the fifth inning, Logan Tomlinson (FR/Trabuco Canyon, Calif.) hit a ground ball to shortstop but a wild throw to first base allowed Fugita to score the tying run as the game was knotted at 3-3. Jack Collingsworth, Jr. (SO/Apple Valley Calif.) followed with an RBI single to give Indiana Wesleyan a 4-3 advantage. But in the bottom of the fifth inning, an IWU throwing error with the bases loaded allowed two MVNU runners to score for a 5-4 lead.
After Indiana Wesleyan went down with no runs in the sixth inning, Mount Vernon Nazarene scored four runs to break open the game 9-4. IWU scored its final run in the seventh inning on a MVNU error for the 9-5 final score.
Indiana Wesleyan will next play in the Crossroads League Tournament which begins on Saturday.