Box Score AUBURNDALE, Florida— The Knox College Prairie Fire baseball team lost their game today against the Central College Dutch by a score of 9-3.
 
The game started off well for the Prairie Fire, as their offense came alive in the second inning. Using back to back singles by Kobe Shutter and Ben Bucher, a Matt Shover double scored Shutter to give Knox the early 1-0 lead. Shover and Bucher would eventually come in to score on another double by Chris McTeague, giving the Prairie Fire a three-run cushion. Unfortunately, Knox's offense was stifled for the rest of the game, with a seventh inning push not yielding any further runs.
 
Central College used a sacrifice fly to score their first run in the fourth inning, but the floodgates burst open in the sixth inning. The Dutch had a two-out rally and used a barrage of singles to score six runs, effectively putting Central College out of reach of the Prairie Fire. Two more runs in the eighth inning provided more than enough insurance for Central, whose pitching shut down Knox.
 
Shover and McTeague each picked up a pair of hits on the day to lead the Prairie Fire offense.
 
Avery Dean, in the first start of his career, held the Dutch to just one run in his first five innings, but Central got to him in the sixth inning.
 
"We played well for the first five innings, but again one bad inning was the difference in the game," said associate head coach James Clark. "Avery Dean did an excellent job of keeping Central's hitters off balance, very proud of his performance today."
 
The Prairie Fire finish up their Florida series tomorrow with a game against Albright College at 12:45 p.m. Central Time.