The Westminster baseball team completed their third divisional sweep over the weekend with a 3-0 sweep of Iowa Wesleyan. The Westminster Blue Jays short-gamed the Iowa Wesleyan Tigers on Saturday with 17-0 (5 inn.) and 14-1 (8 inn.) wins. On Sunday, the Blue Jays won 13-9. The Blue Jays are now 17-8 on the season, 12-4 in conference play and 9-3 in divisional play.
Game One
Freshman Nick Bohlmann started the scoring for the Blue Jays in the first inning with a two RBI single to center field to bring in juniors Tyler Branneky and Deion Hughes.
A double by junior A.C. Long led-off the second, and senior Cam Backes brought him in with a single down the left field line.
In the third inning, the Blue Jays added three more runs on three hits. Ty. Branneky led-off with a homerun. Senior Tim Chambliss then doubled to right center and was brought home with sophomore Tanner Branneky's RBI double to center field. Ta. Branneky later scored on an error by the third baseman.
The Blue Jays ran up the score in the fourth inning, scoring nine runs on six hits. Freshman Adam Mundle scored on an error by shortstop. Bohlmann and Long each scored two runners off singles to the outfield, and Backes hit a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring Ta. Branneky. On two outs, Hughes hit a triple to right field to bring in freshman Chris Asher and Long, and Ty. Branneky singled to bring Hughes home.
The Blue Jays scored their final two runs to bring the score to 17-0 in the fifth inning with a RBI single by Long and a sacrifice fly to center field by sophomore Nick Cessna.
The Blue Jays outhit the Tigers 18-4. Long led the Blue Jay offense with four hits, three RBI and two runs scores. Ty. Branneky grabbed three hits with a homerun and scored three runs with two RBI, and Bohlmann finished with four RBI.
Hughes (6-1) notched the complete game shut-out win. He struck out six of the 28 batters faced and allowed just four hits.
Game Two
The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the game with a sacrifice fly, but the Blue Jays quickly took control of the game in the second inning. A Bohlmann sacrifice bunt moved Asher to second, and he was brought home by a double by Ta. Branneky. A single to left center by Long then brought in Ta. Branneky to take the 2-0 lead.
In the fifth inning, Hughes was brought home by an error on the pitcher, and a Ty. Branneky triple in the sixth inning brought home sophomore Connor Hager and Long.
Bohlmann cracked a two-run homerun in the seventh to bring the score to 7-1. In the eighth inning, the Blue Jays scored seven runs on six hits to take the 14-1 lead. Asher singled to left center to score Ty. Branneky and Hughes, and Chambliss scored on Bohlmann's RBI hit. Ta. Branneky then cleaned the bases with a two-run homerun. Two singles and an error loaded the bases for Hughes. He hit a sacrifice fly to score Long, and Ty. Branneky brought in freshman Blake Strebler with his RBI single.
The Blue Jays held the Tigers from scoring in the bottom of the inning, ending the game an inning early with the final score of 14-1.
Long went 4-5 from the plate, and Asher added three hits. Bohlmann had four RBI.
Junior pitcher Will Miller grabbed the win on the mound. He pitched seven innings and struck out nine.
Game Three
Hager started the third game with a homerun. Freshman Adam Mundle added another run off an error by third base, but Iowa Wesleyan quickly tied up the game with a two run homerun in the bottom of the first.
The Blue Jays had bases loaded when Ty. Branneky stepped up to the plate, and the Tigers walked in a run to give the Blue Jays the 3-2 advantage.
In the third inning, the Blue Jays added four more runs with RBIs coming from Hager, Mundle and Hughes.
Iowa Wesleyan put up one run in the third to bring the game to 7-3.
In the top of the fifth, Asher hit a RBI single to left field to bring in Mundle, but Iowa Wesleyan countered with a homerun in the bottom of the inning.
They added two more runs in the sixth ining and one in the seventh to bring them within one run heading into the eighth inning, 8-7.
Westminster put up five runs in the final two innings and held the Tigers to just two runs to pull out the 13-9 win.
Hager, Asher and Long each had three hits, and Hager and Ty. Branneky finished with three RBI.
Sophomore Miller Bowles grabbed the win on the mound. Junior Collin Brinker got the save.
The Blue Jays play a conference doubleheader with MacMurray on Sunday, April 26, starting at 1:00 p.m. They will honor the four seniors in between the two games.
