Baseball

Sophomore John Clanton came a single away from batting the cycle in leading his team past Luther College in Indianola last week. The Storm swept the conference opener from the Norse.

Clanton put on his hitting show in the Storm’s first victory of the day. Clanton had a double, a RBI triple and capped off his day with a fifth-inning solo shot.

Senior Scott Brown threw all seven innings for the Storm, giving up only one run and striking out four. “I got some really good help from the guys behind me and they also put up five runs to really help me out,” said Brown.

The second game of the double header was a Storm rout as the team walked to a 14-4 victory.

Senior Scott Sibbel started the game out with a first inning two-run homer and then the Storm used a six-hit, six-run third inning to distance themselves from the Norse. Senior Mike Donnenworth pitched six innings, striking out seven on his way to the win.

The Storm then traveled to Dubuque University to take on the Spartans. Simpson split with the Spartans for the weekend.

The Storm prevailed 8-3 in the first contest behind 12 strong Simpson hits. Sophomore Shawn Parker got the win as he pitched all seven innings striking out five. Senior Bryan Cyronek went 2-3 on the day hitting a homer in the third.

In the second game, Simpson managed only four hits and two runs as the team dropped one to the Spartans 4-2. Sibbel led the way for the Storm with a home run in the first inning.

Simpson is 12-10 and 3-1 in conference play.

Softball

The Simpson Storm softball team is off and running this year, dominating its competition and jumping out to a 22-1 record.

Simpson took its second-place ranking in the nation into last week’s conference openers and did nothing to hurt the team, going 4-0. The Storm swept Wartburg College and then shutout Dubuque in Indianola in the home opener.

At Wartburg, Simpson used the long ball to get two wins.

Head Coach Henry Christwoski thought his line-up did the job in Waverly. “We kind of jumped on Wartburg and hit the ball quite well,” said Christowski. “What it amounts to is we stayed in and ended up winning the games all by a small margin. Our hitters were the highlight. We had five homers in two game by five different girls.”

The Storm didn’t make Dubuque’s trip to Indianola a welcome one as the team throttled the Spartans by a combined 22-0 in the two games.

Senior pitcher Amy Kulisky improved her record to 12-1 by throwing four hitless innings striking out three batters.

Simpson used a seven-run second inning to jump all over the Spartans in the first game and then shut the door completely in the third as Sara Kahler ripped a three-run shot to right center. The junior from Long Beach, Calif. went 2-2 with 3 RBIs on the day.

Simpson did not let up in the second game, as the excellent pitching continued for the Storm. Junior Lyndsey Owen threw four innings giving up just one hit and striking out four on her way to her ninth win of the year with no losses.

Offensively Kahler again led Simpson as she went 2-2 with 3 RBIs. Kahler hit a two-run shot in the second that put Simpson up 6-0 and the Storm never looked back.

Men’s and Women’s Track

The Simpson track teams traveled to Missouri, this time the weather wasn’t the problem. Simpson was shorthanded on both the men and women’s side, being hit hard by the flu and other complications.

Simpson was also up against some stiff competition when the team visited Maryville, Mo. this past weekend. Simpson was the only non-scholarship team to participate at the Northwest Missouri State Open on April 5.

The shorthanded Simpson women finished 14th out of 15 teams. The women’s squad wasn’t able to compete in all of the events that it normally would due to the lack of competitors available for the meet.

Simpson still saw strong performances from freshman Jen Wendt who finished eighth in the open 800-meter and senior Ashley Wilson who placed eighth in the javelin and broke her personal record by four feet.

Head Coach Tim Byers was pleased with how the senior is progressing. “Ashley threw right at 99 feet in the javelin and it is only the second meet she’s thrown in and is coming along real nice for us,” said Byers.

On the men’s side, senior Zach Allison again had an excellent meet as he finished third in the open 400 running a provisionally qualifying time of 48.36 seconds. Allison is now qualified for the national meet at the end of the year.

Sophomore Ross Parker had a good day throwing a personal record and finishing fifth in the discuss. Parker threw 139-7 to score for the Storm.

The men finished eighth place out of 16 teams and Byers feels that these meets are just making the team better. “It’s making us stronger, we have a tough group anyway, but I think mentally and physically its really preparing them for our outdoor conference,” said Byers.