By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
After back-to-back road slugfests the previous two days, Washburn University's baseball team was happy to see some zeroes show up on the opponents' side of the scoreboard Tuesday afternoon.
And the Ichabods were even happier to be back in their happy place -- Falley Field.
After dropping a 24-23 10-inning decision at Northeastern State (Okla.) on Sunday and rallying for a 19-15 win Monday the Ichabods never trailed on Tuesday en route to a 10-1 MIAA victory over Northwest Missouri.
Washburn's Charlie Kiefer was the starting and winning pitcher in Tuesday's 10-1 MIAA win over Northwest Missouri at Falley Field. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/TSN]
The Washburn Ichabods congratulate each other after Tuesday's 10-1 home MIAA win over Northwest Missouri. [Photo by Kyle Manthe/TSN]
Washburn, which improved to 17-6 overall and 8-2 in the conference, blanked Northwest in eight of the Bearcats' nine at-bats as starting and winning pitcher Charlie Kiefer led a solid performance by the four pitchers the Ichabods used in the game.
"We love pitching at home at Falley,'' Kiefer said. "We played in some rough conditions this weekend so that kind of aided a few home runs there, but we love pitching here and we just wanted to keep that momentum rolling.''
Kiefer, a junior out of Southlake, Texas, improved to 3-1 while allowing just one run on two hits in four innings of work.
Kiefer did hit three Northwest batters with pitches, but otherwise felt good about his performance.
"I felt pretty good, except for the three plunked batters,'' Kiefer chuckled. "Other than those guys, every other batter felt good.
"Everything was really working for me -- fastball, changeup, curveball -- and I was just trying to pound the zone the best as I could.''
Washburn's Tyler Clark-Chiapparelli set the tone for the day when he led off the bottom of the first with a triple and later scored on a Bearcat wild pitch as the Ichabods jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead.
Northwest Missouri scored its only run of the game in the top of the second and Washburn took control with two runs in the second and three in the third to take a 7-1 lead.
The Ichabods added two runs in the seventh and their final run in the eighth to account for the final margin.
Washburn had 14 hits on the day, including doubles from Shane Morrow and Trevor McCollom to go with Clark-Chapparelli's triple.
Freshman Wyatt Hardy relieved Kiefer and pitched three hitless innings before Cole Warner and Britt Brown pitched an inning apiece.
