Box Score

ROCK ISLAND, Ill. – After giving up three runs in the first, junior right-hander Walter White (East Peoria HS, East Peoria, Ill.) settled in and blanked North Central over the final six innings Sunday as Augustana won the rubber game of its series with the Cardinals 13-3 at Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field. The Vikings scored in every inning but the first, with Danny Fifer's (Lincoln-Way West HS, New Lenox, Ill.) RBI double in the bottom of the sixth providing the 10-run margin that shortened the game to seven innings. Coach Greg Wallace's club is now 15-4 on the year and 2-1 in the CCIW, while North Central dropped to 8-9 overall and 1-2 in the league.
 
The first three batters of the game reached and eventually scored off White. Sam Carius beat out a dribbler to lead off the game. Nick Brandt followed with a single to left and Sam Klein laced a two-run triple to the gap in left center to give the Cardinals a 2-0 lead. Klein scored on Joe Paparone's ground out to second, but that would be the extent of the damage North Central would do against White.
 
After leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, Augustana tied it in the second. Junior Jeff Prior (Rock Canyon HS, Lone Tree, Colo.) led off with a single to center. One out later, classmate Alex Fluehr (Harlem  HS, Loves Park, Ill.) moved him to third with a single to right. Senior Brandon Jasper (Central HS, DeWitt, Iowa) ripped a double down the left field line, scoring Prior, and junior Nathan Gray (Rock Island HS, Rock Island, Ill.) lined a two-run single to right to tie it at 3-all.
 
Junior Trace Gingerich (Sherrard HS, Sherrard, Ill.) had a leadoff single in the third and scored the go-ahead run on a Fluehr base hit to right.
 
While White cruised, the Viking offense continued to pile on runs. Augustana added two in the fourth on RBI singles by senior Kyle Lenihan (Romeoville HS, Romeoville, Ill.) and Prior and five in the fifth on an RBI single by Fifer, John Swiderski's (Geneva HS, Geneva, Ill.) two-run double, a Lenihan sacrifice fly and an RBI double by Prior.
 
In the sixth, Fluehr drew a leadoff walk and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Fifer's RBI double pushed the lead to 13-3, scoring Jasper, who had singled.
 
White set the Cardinals down in the seventh—allowing just an infield hit—to end the contest. The complete game was his first of the season and he won for the third time in as many decisions. He gave up three runs on seven hits, but allowed just one runner past first base after the first inning. He walked none and fanned four.
 
Fifer and Prior led a 16-hit Viking attack with three knocks each. Jasper, Gray, Gingerich and Fluehr each had a pair of hits and Gingerich also drew two walks to reach base four times in five plate appearances. He scored three runs, as did Jasper. Gray, Fifer, Swiderski, Lenihan and Prior all drove in two runs each.
 
Fluehr and Prior also came up with defensive gems. Fluehr made a diving backhand stop deep in the hole at short and threw out Richard Concialdi in the second inning and Prior made a diving grab of Klein's liner to left in the third.
 
On Tuesday, March 31, Augustana hosts Elmhurst in a CCIW doubleheader. First pitch at Swanson/Brunner is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.