Final Day Heartbreak for Blueboys

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

GRINNELL, Iowa – It wasn't the ending anyone associated with Illinois College baseball wanted. Needing two wins for hosting rights in next week's Midwest Conference Tournament and one win to all but assure itself a place in the field, the Blueboys came away empty-handed after being defeated by Grinnell on Sunday by scores of 7-6 and 6-0.

With tiebreakers working against them in the division race, Illinois College ends its season at 17-19 (9-7 MWC South).

Game One: Grinnell 7, Illinois College 6
If a game was there for the taking on Sunday, it was the opener. Illinois College held a 4-0 lead after three innings, but gave away the lead after Grinnell put five runs on the board in the fifth inning. Though the Blueboys would come back to tie the game on two occasions, the Pioneers pushed the go-ahead run across yet again in the top of the ninth and IC finally ran out of answers.

Starting pitcher Zack Hanlon was cruising early on, getting Graham Fisher swinging to end the top of the first inning (Grinnell was the visiting team on the day) and then sitting down Matt Godinsky and Yuki Kawahara back-to-back to get out of the second. Showing off his home run stroke for the second day running, Brendan Stanfield then staked Illinois College to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second with a solo shot off of Andrew Mack to get the Blueboys on top.

Two weak grounders and another strikeout ended Grinnell's chance in the top of the third and Illinois College extended its lead in the bottom half. An error by Kawahara allowed lead-off hitter Nick Dalfonso to reach base. He then advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Austin Dormire and scored on a Josh Krumwiede RBI single to make it 2-0. Krumwiede's hit was followed by an Austin Kerans double to bring him around to score and Kerans would eventually make it home from third on a sacrifice fly from Stanfield to give IC a 4-0 advantage.

Grinnell finally got its first two hits off of Hanlon in the fourth inning, but Illinois College didn't allow the Pioneers to push a run across. However, things went south in the fifth inning as a combination of three Grinnell hits and three IC errors ended with five runs scoring for the Pioneers and giving them a sudden 5-4 lead.

Undeterred, Illinois College came back in the bottom of the fifth with a one-out double from Kerans. The sophomore slugger was on third with two down in the inning when a Mack wild pitch was able to bring him home and tie it up at 5-5.

For IC, it was up to the bullpen at that point. Ethan Crain came on and held the Pioneers in check in both the sixth and seventh innings, but Krumwiede was stranded on third in the bottom of the seventh and the game remained tied going into the eighth.

Grinnell retook the lead in the top of the eighth with a two-out Ryan Penaflor single to make it 6-5, but again the Blueboys would respond. Relief pitcher John Essig battled control issues early and Stanfield made him pay for it with a lead-off single, followed by a passed ball and wild pitch that got the freshman around the horn to third. Connor Melton plated Stanfield with a sacrifice fly and the game went to the ninth level at 6-6.

Crain got the first two Grinnell hitters of the inning and looked to be on his way to a quiet frame before pinch-hitter Steven Petritis got aboard with a walk. He then stole second and Kawahara doubled to the gap in left-center to give the Pioneers the lead for a third time in the contest. Dylan Sunderland came on to end the inning, but the damage was done. The top of the Illinois College order went down 1-2-3 against Sam Tinkham and Grinnell started off the day with a vital victory.

Krumwiede led all hitters in the game with a 3-for-5 performance. Stanfield ended with a team-high two RBIs, scoring twice along with Kerans in the contest. Crain fell to 2-4 with the loss in relief.

Game Two: Grinnell 6, Illinois College 0
If you need proof that it just wasn't Illinois College's day, you don't need to look any further than the bottom of the fourth inning. Grinnell's lead was only 2-0 at that point and the game was far from done with runners on first and second and no outs for the Blueboys. Stanfield came in as hot as any other player for IC and was up in the perfect spot to alter the course of the game. And just like that, the inning was over. Stanfield hit a ball up the middle that shortstop Teague Towner gloved just before it hit the ground. Moving on the play, Jonathan Schrage and Kerans had absolutely no way of getting back to their bases and the Pioneers had a triple play that ended the best scoring opportunity of the afternoon for the Blueboys.

Grinnell started off early with three hits and a run in the top of the first inning to grab a 1-0 lead on Illinois College and starter Dylan Jones. Jones was effective at working out of jams throughout the day, but the Pioneers did tag him for 13 hits in seven-plus innings. The game stayed right there until the Pioneers added another run in the fourth on a lead-off solo home run from Matt Hammond to make it 2-0 and set the stage for the defensive play of the day in the bottom half.

Building off that momentum, Grinnell added another run in the fifth on three singles, bringing Towner around to score for a 3-0 lead. Meanwhile, with the exception of the fourth inning, the Blueboys weren't having nearly as much success against Pioneers starter Ian Sales. Sales would end with a complete-game shutout, giving up only five hits and striking out four.

Grinnell tacked on another run in the eighth after Jones had made way for Luke Pannbacker, increasing the lead to 4-0. In the ninth, a two-run home run from Anthony Mack made a comeback even more unlikely and the Blueboys went down in order in the ninth.

The two wins by Grinnell clinched the South Division title for the Pioneers, along with the right to host the MWC Tournament on May 8-9. The other team to advance to the tournament from the South Division will be determined by the outcome of today's game between Cornell and Monmouth, who each enter with 8-7 records in the division, but hold the tiebreaker over IC by virtue of a 2-2 record against Grinnell in matchups earlier this season.

Dormire, Krumwiede, Kerans, Schrage and Melton each had a hit for Illinois College in the game. Jones took the loss and ended his freshman season with a record of 3-4.