Late-inning slide causes baseball season opener, softball coach Christowski wins 600th game

TUCSON, Ariz. – Simpson College baseball lead 3-0 with 4 outs left to get in Saturday’s season opener with Cornell College before an 11-run outburst cost the Storm a 11-3 loss.

Jake Esdohr lead off the game with a double, being brought home by a Nick Anderson RBI groundout.

Anderson would extend the Storm lead to 2-0 on a RBI single to right to bring in Jeremy Roehrick.

Up 2-0 in the bottom of the 5th, Jake Sciezinski chipped what appeared to be a base-hit over a leaping Cornell second baseman although Esdohr was thrown at second, being caught up waiting for the ball to drop.

Roehrick would score on the play though as Simpson went ahead 3-0.

Gage Reis, who started on the mound for Simpson, held the Rams to three hits and zero runs in four innings as the Storm looked to get their pitchers innings.

Matt Pennings came into the game in the 5th, sailing through the Rams’ lineup until the 8th inning.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the 8th, a bases clearing triple from Brandon Davis tied the game up at 3-3.

An error followed up a two-run single put Cornell up 6-3, and in the ninth they kept pouring it on, scoring five runs on six hits off of Brock Borgeson.

Simpson was outhit 16-6, leaving eight on base.

Roehrick was the only Storm player to have a multi-hit performance, going 2-4.

Pennings was saddled with the loss as Duncan Villhauer earned the win for Cornell.

Simpson will come back with two games against Bethany Luther College beginning at 10 a.m. on Sunday.

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Simpson College softball hasn’t played a game in Iowa yet but it hasn’t prevented them from getting off to a 10-0 start as the Storm have taken their first four games in Florida.

Head coach Henry Christowski earned his 600th win in a 13-3 victory over St. Scholastica.

After winning the next three games coming against Westminster (PA.), Wheaton (Mass.) and Mitchell, Christowski improved his all-time record to 603-200-2 in 20 years as head coach at Simpson.

Day 1 – Mar. 6

Simpson took down St. Scholastica 13-3 in five innings as Riley Fisher went four innings, jumping out to a 4-0 start on the season.

Fisher also drove in two runs as Tori Haag, Taylor Davis, Britney Steele and Hailey Jensen also compiled two RBI.

Game two on the day, this one with Westminster (Pa.) was much tighter as runs in the second and fifth inning were all Abbie Van Vleet would need, pitching a seven inning shutout, giving up six hits and fanning three.

Rachel Guessford drove in the game-winning run in the second inning on a sacrifice fly. Jensen added insurance, singling to left in the fifth to bring in Stacie Brown.

Day. 2 – Mar. 7

Van Vleet came back and threw another complete game shutout, mowing down Wheaton Mass, giving up just five hits in seven innings as Simpson won 3-0.

The Storm (10-0) went with the combination of Kaytlyn Ernst and Maggie Long in the second game of the day, winning 5-2 over Mitchell as Long struck out seven to earn her first win of the season.

Mitchell jumped out to a 1-0 lead but Simpson scored five of the last six runs in the game, getting two RBI from Guessford and another from Haag and Jensen.