Baseball Snaps Skid with Principia Split

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball brought its bats in the opener of a doubleheader on Tuesday afternoon against Principia College. The Blueboys were unrelenting at the plate, pounding out 12 hits in only seven innings of the 11-1 win. The Panthers then reversed the script on IC in the day's second game, grabbing a four-run lead in the first inning and cruising from there, handing Illinois College a 10-4 setback. Dylan Sunderland earned the complete game win in the opener to move to 2-0 on the year, while Jake Horve was shackled with the loss in the second game, falling to 0-2.

The Blueboys continue their hectic week tomorrow afternoon, going on the road to face Blackburn College in a nine-inning contest starting at 3 p.m.

Game One: Illinois College 11, Principia 1
Illinois College hit Principia starting pitcher Aleq McMullin hard right away to start the game and didn't let up throughout against him and relief pitcher Bucky Brewer. The result was IC's highest run total in nearly three weeks.

Jonathan Schrage started things off for the Blueboys with a one-out triple to the gap in right-center in the first inning, scoring one batter later on a sacrifice fly from Josh Krumwiede. Sunderland made that lead hold up through the bottom of the third, when IC really got going.

Leading off the bottom of the third, Austin Dormire tripled to left field. Nick Dalfonso scored Dormire with a RBI single between first and second. There were two outs and only the one run in when an error from the Principia shortstop kept the inning alive. Given an extra out, Austin Peck made the Panthers pay with a double to the wall in left that scored two runs for a 4-0 lead. The next batter, Zac Schopp, disregarded the breeze blowing in and smashed a home run over the wall in left to make it a 6-0 ballgame.

Principia attempted to get back in the game, scoring one run in the fourth inning, but Schopp ended the threat with a hustling, sliding catch in third base foul territory to bring the Blueboys back to the plate. Connor Melton opened the bottom of the fourth with a double and Dormire knocked him in to regain IC's six-run lead.

The Blueboys put the game out of reach in the sixth inning, plating four more runs. Dalfonso and Schrage each got on base to start, then each scored on a double from Peck. He would come around to score on an error from the left fielder and Melton extended IC out to a double-digit lead on a single right back up the middle.

Four players recorded multiple hits for the Blueboys, led by three from their lead-off hitter Dalfonso. Peck, Melton and Dormire each collected two hits apiece.

Sunderland earned his second win of the season by scattering seven hits across seven innings and striking out six Panthers.

Game Two: Principia 10, Illinois College 4
Struggles out of the gate came back to haunt Illinois College in the second game of the twinbill. Principia got out to a 4-0 lead after the first inning, loading the bases with one away and then scoring all four runs with two down in the inning.

The Blueboys put runners on the corners in the bottom half of the first, but left them stranded, bringing the Panthers back to the plate.  A passed ball brought a run in to score from third base to up the lead to 5-0 and Principia later scored a run on a double steal to make it 6-0.

The golden opportunity for the Blueboys to get back in the game came in the bottom of the third. A single from Krumwiede was sandwiched by a pair of errors from the Principia shortstop to load the bases with no outs in the frame. Panther starter Parker Tibbetts escaped the jam by getting Schopp swinging before inducing a groundout from Melton for the second out that brought Schrage in to score. Tibbetts later uncorked a wild pitch that scored Krumwiede, but he was effectively wild throughout the game and got Alec Wade to fly out to end the inning while maintaining a 6-2 edge.

Principia got back to business in the top of the fourth, scoring three runs to take a 9-2 lead. Only one hit was required from the Panthers, as the Blueboys walked three batters and hit another with a pitch.

Illinois College put together some offense in both the fourth and fifth innings, scoring once in each inning. Dormire knocked a solo shot out down the power alley in right-center in the fourth. One inning later, a balk from Tibbetts brought Kyle Obertino home from third. It was simply a case of too little, too late for the Blueboys however. Tibbetts combined with relievers Dallen Russell and Gavin Thomas to sit the last nine IC hitters down in order to end the contest.

The Blueboys were held to four hits in the game, two of them coming from Dormire. Horve suffered the loss on the hill for Illinois College, while Kevin Schuh and Dylan Jones were solid in relief.