MARION, Ind. -- The Indiana Wesleyan University baseball team continues to collect wins as they swept visiting Saint Francis (Ind.) tonight at Wildcat Field. Indiana Wesleyan has won eight of their last nine games.
Tuesday night the Wildcats defeated the Cougars by scores of 4-0 and 8-3. The wins improve the IWU record to 14-18 this season and 11-5 in Crossroads League play. The Wildcats are third place in the league and are just 3.0 games behind leader Taylor (Ind.).
Matt Blankenship (SO/Cincinnati, Ohio) had a dominant pitching performance in the first game as he threw a complete game shutout. He allowed four hits and one walk with two strikeouts to improve to 4-1 on the season. Blankenship did not allow a hit over the final 3.1 innings of the game.
Logan Tomlinson (FR/Trabuco Canyon, Calif.) laid down a squeeze bunt to score AJ Harris (SO/Temecula, Calif.) for the winning run in the second inning. IWU scored two more times in the third inning on a 2-run single by Cody Calvert (JR/Godfrey, Ill.). The lead increased to 4-0 in the third inning when Caleb Birkey (SO/Granger, Ind.) hit an RBI single to score Phillip Lougheed (SR/Swartz Creek, Mich.). The four runs were more than enough for Blankenship.
Harris was 2-for-3 from the plate with one run scored and two stolen bases while Calvert was 1-for-3 with two RBI. Preston Fugita (JR/Littleton, Colo.) was 1-for-3 with a run and a stolen base.
The Wildcats put the second game away early with a five run first inning. IWU scored the first run before there was even an out on a Cam Screeton RBI single. Following a double play, the Wildcats scored four runs with two outs. Harris had an RBI single and later in the inning Tomlinson cleared the bases with a double for the 5-0 lead.
Lougheed drilled a two-out RBI single in the second inning and Indiana Wesleyan cushioned the lead even more with two runs in the fifth inning to lead 8-0. Calvert was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force one run home and Craig Nesselhuf (SO/Littleton, Colo.) grounded out to second base that allowed Preston Fugita to cross the plate.
Cody Jones (SR/Hartford City, Ind.) collected the win to even his record to 2-2 on the season. He allowed one run on two hits in 6.0 innings. He walked five and struck out four. Jon Keesling (SO/Selma, Ind.) pitched the seventh inning and allowed two runs on two hits. All three Saint Francis runs were unearned.
Fugita reached base four times as he was 3-for-3 with a walk. He had two doubles and scored twice. Lougheed finished 2-for-4 with one RBI while Tomlinson knocked in three runs.
Indiana Wesleyan and Saint Francis complete the season series on Thursday at Saint Francis in Fort Wayne.
