DAVENPORT, Fla. – The Carleton College baseball team dropped a 4-1 decision to the University of Wisconsin-Stout. The game was tied 1-1 before the Knights conceded three runs in the ninth.
Ryan Chang started the scoring in the bottom of the second, tripling to straightaway center and crossing the plate on a productive groundout from
Wilson Taraday.
On the mound,
Charlie Werts took the ball for his first career start and matched UW-Stout's senior hurler, Nathan Weckop, pitch-for-pitch. The Blue Devils (3-4) scratched across a run against Werts in the third with a pair of singles to tie the game at 1-1. That was the only damage the right-hander would allow as Werts concluded a 4.1-inning start with four singles, one walk, and one run allowed, striking out five. Meanwhile, Weckop threw 7.0 stanzas of one-run ball.
Will Schnepf entered to relieve Werts in the fifth and retired the final two batters of the frame before throwing three consecutive shutout frames. Carleton threatened in the fifth and eighth innings but could not score. That brought the game to the ninth inning tied 1-1.
UW-Stout received a pair of free passes to open the top of the ninth, and Kevin Zanin doubled in a run to untie the game for the first time since the third. A wild pitch and sacrifice fly brought home two insurance runs for the Blue Devils. The Knights loaded up the bases in the bottom half of the inning but made the final out with the go-ahead run at the plate.
Schnepf pitched 3.2 innings, allowing four hits, two runs, and walking one against four strikeouts. He also walked twice on offense.
Reece Wellsandt carded a double and a single.
Up Next for the Knights
After a day off, Carleton takes on a tough foe in Kalamazoo College, ranked No. 22 in the latest D3baseball.com poll. The teams will play at Northeast Regional Park Field No. 3 in Davenport, Fla., at 10:00 a.m. EDT/9:00 a.m. CDT.
