Sophomore pitcher Kaden Crawford winds up a pitch on the mound against Midland.
The Doane Baseball team played two doubleheaders last week, one on the road and one at home. The Tigers started the week in Sioux City, Iowa to take on Briar Cliff University before returning home to host Midland University.
Doane started the weekend in Iowa taking on Briar Cliff University, with two records set in this doubleheader. The first game was very evenly matched between the two teams as neither could get on the scoreboard until the sixth inning, were each team accumulated one run.
In the seventh inning, the Tigers added two more runs to go up 3-1. Senior Aaron Forrest closed out the game on the mound with eight strikeouts. Forrest is now commemorated in the school record book for the most winning pitcher with 25 victories.
Senior Joe Osborn kicked off the second game with a school record of his own. Osborn hit a homerun and collected his 187 runs batted in (RBI). Two more RBIs in the first inning set the Tigers up for a great start of 3-0.
The Tigers added four more runs in the next two innings before the Chargers brought in a single run. In the fourth and fifth inning, Doane added yet another four runs to go up 11-1 before having a huge performance in the sixth inning.
It was in this inning that the Tigers brought in seven runs to give them an 18-1 lead. Although Briar Cliff added another run in the seventh, Doane would secure the clean sweep and win game two 18-2.
Returning home victorious, the Tigers had no time to rest before facing off against Midland University. In the first game, Doane struck first with two runs in the first inning alone. The Warriors would add one run in both the second and third innings to tie things up before taking the lead in the fourth with three runs.
Doane answered in the bottom of the fourth with two runs of their own to trail by one. After a scoreless fifth inning, the Tigers brought in two runs to take a 6-5 lead. However, Midland followed this up in the seventh inning with a strong performance at the plate, bringing in four runs.
Despite one last push by Doane to add another run to their score, it would not be enough and the Warriors would take the first game 9-7. The second game of the day started very similarly to the first, as the Tigers would be the first ones to score.
Doane secured their first run in the second inning and then added five more in the third inning to go up 6-0. Midland was finally able to answer in the fourth with four runs of their own and one more run in the fifth, making the score 6-5.
As the Warriors were cutting the gap between the two teams, the Tigers used the bottom of the fifth inning to score 10 runs against Midland. The Warriors would not score again the rest of the game and Doane went on to win the second game 16-5.
The Doane Baseball team will be in Mitchell, South Dakota on April 20 and 21 to play two doubleheaders against Dakota Wesleyan University.