By: Howie Thompson, Director of Sports Communication

Game One Box Score
Game Two Box Score

The Peacock baseball team earned a much-needed sweep on day one of their four-game series with the Marauders of the University of Mary and pushed their winning streak to five games.  Upper Iowa scored 12 runs in each game; after the team ran away with an 8-run decision in the first game, they had to fight to pull off a two-run decision in the second game.  The two wins, combined with other action in the NSIC, have bumped UIU to sixth place with a 14-13 mark in conference games and a 17-24 mark overall.
 
Game One Recap
 
Mario Madera improved to 6-1 on the season with a complete game victory.  The senior went seven innings allowing four runs, three earned, on eight hits while striking out four batters.
 
At the plate, the Peacocks made up a two-run deficit in the third inning scoring four runs on five hits.  Juve Reyes hit a double to open the inning and get the momentum on UIU’s side.  Tyler Adams drove in the first two runs, while Mikey Henrichs and Andrew Kraus picked up the other rbi’s as the visitors got up 4-2. 
 
Two runs in the fifth came thanks to a Kraus double and a Pat Arntson single and gave the Peacocks a 6-2 lead in the middle of the fifth, but the Marauders answered with a pair of runs to cut the gap back to two heading to the sixth inning.
 
Upper Iowa put the game away in the sixth scoring six runs on four hits and taking advantage of three U-Mary errors to claim a 12-4 lead.  Rudy Casillas, Henrichs, Kraus, Ryan Kreiner and John Dobson all recorded rbi’s in the inning.  Three of the six runs were unearned and the home team was not able to recover as UIU claimed the eight-run win.
 
The Peacock bats tallied 14 hits to score the dozen runs.  Kraus led the team with four hits and four rbi, while Casillas, Kreiner, Reyes and Taylor Brecht each had two hits apiece.
 
Game Two Recap
 
The Peacock offense continued to mark the scoreboard in game two building a 6-0 lead on the way to the bottom of the third inning.  Henrichs tripled a run home in the first, and after a balk plated the second run of the game, Adams hit a two-run single in the second and third innings to push the Peacocks lead to six.
 
U-Mary charged all the way back in the bottom of the third with six runs on just two hits.  Four walks, two wild pitches and a hit batsman sunk the Peacocks in the inning.  The Marauders kept it going in the fourth with a pair of runs on a single to left with runners on second and third with one out.
 
Trailing 8-6, the Peacocks cut the gap in half in the fifth with a run on a sac fly from Ryan Citro that plated Reyes with an unearned run as he reached on an error.  Upper Iowa retook the lead, 9-8, in the sixth with a pair of runs on three hits including an rbi-ground out from Kreiner and a double down the leftfield line by Reyes. 
 
The Marauders took another crack at the lead in the sixth scoring two runs on a double to right center that put the home team ahead, 10-9.
 
Neither team scored in the seventh, which was the first and only time in the game that neither team marked the scoreboard in an inning.
 
Upper Iowa tied the game in the eighth with one out when a double steal saw Arntson come home.  Later in the inning, a Reyes single up the middle, his fifth hit of the day, gave the road team an 11-10 lead.  Henrichs added an insurance run to UIU’s lead, 12-10, with a home run to left with two outs in the ninth. 
 
Cole Hanson closed the game out after taking over in the eighth and earned the save.  In the ninth, U-Mary got a walk in their first plate appearance, but a foul out and a pair of strikeouts ended the rally and gave the Peacocks a sweep on day one.  Hanson’s two inning save came without a hit or run for U-Mary.
 
Trey Cook earned the win with 3.1 innings of relief.  Cook allowed two runs on five hits while striking out three in his time on the hill. 
 
The Peacocks used 13 hits to score their 12 runs led by three hits each from Henrichs and Reyes.   Adams and Citro both contributed two hits, while three other UIU batters reached thanks to a hit.
 
The two teams will get back on the diamond at Municipal Ballpark in Bismarck, N.D. tomorrow at 11 a.m. for the final two games of their series.