Baseball Roars Back to Take One from Grinnell

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
GRINNELL, Iowa – The Illinois College baseball team got off to a bad start on Saturday afternoon, falling behind early and suffering a 12-0 defeat to Grinnell College in the first game of a doubleheader. However, the Blueboys scrapped and clawed to come away with an 8-5 come-from-behind win over the Pioneers in the second game of the day to keep the two teams tied atop the Midwest Conference's South Division at 9-5 entering tomorrow's final doubleheader of the regular season.

The South Division race could play itself out in nine different ways tomorrow. In three of those scenarios, Illinois College would win the South and earn the right to host the MWC Tournament next week at Lenz Field. The tournament will sort itself out beginning tomorrow morning when IC and Grinnell meet for two more games starting at 10 a.m. from Pioneer Park.

Game One: Grinnell 12, Illinois College 0
Things went downhill fast for the Blueboys in the opener, with Grinnell scoring five runs in the bottom of the first inning, opening up an 8-0 lead after three innings and going on to claim a mercy-rule win in seven innings to start the day. Pioneer ace Graham Fisher went all seven innings and allowed only two hits from the IC offense to get the complete game victory.

Grinnell took the lead right away without Illinois College recording an out. A walk and an infield single put two on for Fisher and the pitcher helped his cause with a three-run blast to left field. A two-out homer from Yuki Kawahara made it 5-0 before the Blueboys got out of the inning on a D.J. Davis strikeout.

The Pioneers used the long ball again in the second inning with Fisher going deep yet again to up the lead to 7-0. In the third inning, Michael Slattery doubled with two outs to bring Kawahara home and end the day for Davis.

Luke Pannbacker was effective in the fourth inning, getting the Pioneers down in order. Illinois College couldn't take advantage of its brief window of opportunity though. Fisher gave up just one single in the fourth inning and another in the fifth, but the Blueboys never advanced a runner into scoring position in either inning and Grinnell ended the game with a pair of runs in both the fifth and sixth.

Nick Dalfonso and Jonathan Schrage were the only two Blueboy players with a hit in the game. Davis suffered the loss to go to 4-4 on the season.

Game Two: Illinois College 8, Grinnell 5
Illinois College showed right away that things would be different in the second game and the Blueboys gladly accepted some charity from the Pioneers along the way to pick up the win and even the series at 1-1. Grinnell committed six errors in the game, including three in a big seventh inning for IC.

The Blueboys grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an Austin Dormire single in which he moved to second on an error from Kawahara. Following a wild pitch that put him on third, Dalton Kerans hit a ball into left that was misplayed by Ryan Penaflor to give IC a 1-0 lead.

Grinnell came back to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the first inning and then took a 2-1 lead in the third on a two-out single. The game would stay there into the seventh inning with Dylan Sunderland keeping the Pioneers from expanding on their advantage.

The game flipped around in the top of the seventh. Connor Melton hit a one-out single to right and he moved to second on an error. From there, Austin Peck reached on an infield single and Dalfonso loaded the bases with a single to right. A catcher's interference call allowed Dormire to reach and moved the runners up 90 feet, bringing Melton home from third and tying the score at 2-2. A Josh Krumwiede single then brought Peck and Dalfonso home to make it 4-2 and chase Grinnell starter Sam Tinkham from the game.

The inning wasn't over yet, though. Kerans singled against reliever John Essig to score two more runs and increase IC's margin to 6-2 going into the bottom of the seventh. Grinnell was able to get one run back on Sunderland in its turn at the plate, but the junior escaped the jam with the tying run at the plate, exiting with a 6-3 lead.

Zac Schopp came in to pitch the eighth inning and the Pioneers put one more run on the board against him, cutting it to a 6-4 game, but Dormire threw out Kawahara at third to get the third out and keep IC in front by two heading to the ninth.

With Grinnell on the comeback trail, the Blueboys got two massive insurance runs in the top of the ninth from Brendan Stanfield. The freshman's first career home run brought Krumwiede home and made it an 8-4 game. Grinnell would score once in the bottom half of the inning, but Schopp was never in too much danger and his second inning of relief was enough to earn his second save of the season.

Sunderland improved to 5-1 with the win, striking out five and scattering five hits across seven innings of work. Dalfonso, Krumwiede, Kerans and Peck each had two hits apiece for the IC offense.