BOX SCORE
The Tiger baseball team kept their season alive on Thursday evening as they defeated Concordia University in an elimination game at the GPAC Tournament, 14-4 in five innings. Doane advances to action on Friday as they will take on Hastings College at 12:30 PM.
Doane jumped on the board first, plating two runs in the second inning. With two outs to open the inning, Jason West walked and scored from first on a double by Austin Tharp. Anthony Hincy followed with a RBI-single to plate Tharp.
In the third, Doane added four runs to take a 6-0 lead. With one out, Mike Albert walked and stole second base. He came in to score on a single by Tom Frinkman. Josh Reed and Anthony Dunn reached on errors to load the bases for the Tigers. West followed with a RBI walk to plate a run and another Concordia error allowed two runs to score as Tharp reached on a fielder's choice.
Doane blew the game open with seven runs in the fourth to take a 13-0 lead. Spanel walked and stole second base. Blake Snow moved Spanel to third with a single. Following a pitching change, Albert singled in Spanel as Snow moved to second. A bunt single by Frinkman loaded the bases for Reed who responded with a triple to plate three runs.
After another pitching change, Dunn hit a sacrifice fly to score Reed from third. With the bases empty and one out, West drew a walk. Following a strikeout, Hincy singled to advance West to second base. A wild pitch allowed both runners to advance and Spanel followed with a double to score both runners.
Concordia came back with three runs in the bottom of the fourth to cut into the Tiger lead. Doane starter Ryan Otto limited the Bulldogs to a pair of hits through the first three innings of work but Concordia put together four hits in the fourth.
Doane bounced back with a run in the fifth but were threatening early on. Albert led off with a double but was doubled-up on a fly out to left field by Frinkman. With two outs, Reed doubled and came around to score on a single by Dunn.
Concordia used two hits in the bottom of the fifth to plate a run but left two runners on base as they were unable to cut the Doane lead to single digits as the game ended on the 10-run mercy rule.
Every Tiger starter scored at least one run in the game and all but one had a hit. The only player not to record a hit was Jason West and he did not have an official at-bat as he drew three walks and was hit by a pitch.
Hincy went 3-for-4 with a run and RBI. Reed added a 2-for-4 with three runs and three RBIs. Frinkman and Albert had two-hit, two-run games. Tharp finished with three RBIs and Dunn and Spanel added two apiece.
Otto picked up his team-high, eighth win on the year as he allowed four runs on eight hits in five innings while striking out four.