March 7th, 2009
Box Score 1
Box Score 2
(Photo of Ryan Nokelby by Tim Clark)
SEGUIN, Texas – With a doubleheader split Saturday at TLU’s Katt-Isbel Field, the Texas Lutheran Bulldogs took two out of three games from Concordia Texas in an American Southwest Conference series.
TLU took game one Saturday 2-1, and Concordia Texas won game two 3-2. TLU captured the opening game of the series, on Friday, with a 3-2 win.
In Saturday’s first contest, Ryan Nokelby (Santa Fe/Santa Fe) hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to lift the Bulldogs and freshman starting pitcher Brad Orosey (Houston/Cypress Creek) past the Tornados.
Nokelby took a Michael Johnson fastball over the left-field fence to give TLU the 2-1 lead. Orosey worked a 1-2-3 seventh, with two strikeouts, to improve to 4-0.
Orosey and Johnson, who struck out a conference-record 17 batters in his last outing, matched scoreless inning for scoreless inning until the Tornados broke through for a run in the top of the sixth. Chad Thielepape singled home Patrick Mercer from second with two outs in the inning.
TLU’s two-run sixth started with a Jeremy Macklin (Austin/Bowie/Huston-Tillotson) single. After a fielder’s choice by Drew Farr retired Macklin at second, Nokelby stepped to the plate to put the Bulldogs in front.
Johnson, with a fastball touching the mid-90s, cruised through the Bulldog lineup until the sixth. He dropped to 3-1 with the loss. He allowed six hits, walked two and struck out six.
Orosey struck out seven for TLU and did not walk a batter.
In game two, Concordia starter Ben Whiteley tossed a one-hitter over seven innings before putting the game in the arms of relievers Pete Ontiveros and Stephen Szkotak. Whiteley struck out four, walked two and allowed one unearned run.
Concordia took a 3-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth with a run in the second, another in the fifth, and an insurance run in the ninth. Concordia RBI went to Mercer, Tom Williams and Colin Lippert.
After scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the first, TLU posted seven scoreless innings of offense. In the ninth, Nokelby led off with a triple and scored a batter later on an RBI single from Clay Childress (Houston/Jersey Village/Eastfield JC).
Daniel Harvey (Houston/Houston Christian) pinch ran for Childress and moved to second a sacrifice bunt from Cody Miller (New Braunfels/New Braunfels). Harvey advanced to third on a ground ball from Andy Griffith (Loyola Beach/Riviera Kaufer/Cisco JC). The TLU threat ended with a pop-foul to third.
Szkotak recorded his third save of the year, and Whiteley improved to 2-1.
Logan Hull (Victoria/Memorial) took the loss for the Bulldogs in game two. He dropped to 1-3. He went six innings and allowed two earned runs. He walked three, did not strike out a batter, and hit four. Jeremiah Steinert (Sugar Land/Dulles) pitched the final three innings and surrendered two hits and an earned run.
TLU moved its overall mark to 12-6 and its conference record to 2-1.
Concordia Texas is now 10-8 overall with a 1-2 conference record.
TLU returns to action Monday with a 2 p.m. home game against Wabash (Ind.).