By: The Pioneers took advantage of IC errors to come away with 5-3 and 9-3 wins on Saturday afternoon at Joe Brooks Field.
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Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team got off to a tough start in a four-game series with Midwest Conference South Division leaders Grinnell College, losing by scores of 5-3 and 9-3 to the Pioneers. Grinnell took advantage of five IC errors in the two games and the Blueboys were unlucky throughout the day, hitting directly to Pioneer infielders in nearly every big situation to come up short.
With the two wins, Grinnell moves to 24-4 (10-0 MWC South) on the season. IC drops to 13-12 (1-5 MWC South). The two teams will meet again tomorrow for two more games beginning at 10 a.m.
Game One: Grinnell 5, Illinois College 3
Scoreless through five innings, Grinnell scored three unearned runs in the top of the sixth inning and held off a late charge from IC to start the series off with a win. Sam Tinkham went 7.1 innings, striking out nine hitters and allowing five hits to improve to 5-0.
Dylan Jones went 5.2 innings and struck out four, but allowed three unearned runs to fall to 2-2 for the year.
While Jones was able to work out of a couple jams in the early innings, Tinkham was perfect for three innings until giving up a lead-off walk to
Austin Dormire in the fourth. With Dormire on second following an
Austin Peck sacrifice bunt,
Cain Brady singled into center field, but Dormire couldn't advance all the way home. With runners on the corners, Tinkham got
Alec Wade swinging and induced a shallow pop-up by
Taw Fredrickson.
Things started going wrong for Illinois College in the top of the sixth as Grinnell took the lead by turning to small ball. Graham Fisher singled up the middle to lead off the inning and Matt Hammond followed with a single on a bunt. With two on, Matt Godinsky laid down another bunt and Jones, ranging to his right, tried to get the lead runner at third. When his throw went astray, two runs came around to score to break the deadlock. Later in the inning, a double by Ravi Levens with two outs scored another run and ended the day for Jones.
Grinnell tacked on another run in the seventh against reliever
Jared Guizzetti to push the lead to 4-0. The Blueboys got back into the game in the bottom of the seventh as Fredrickson singled and
Bryce Rooney walked with two outs to put two on.
Anthony Lucchesi then got ahold of a Tinkham offering and sent it out over the wall in left to cut the deficit to 4-3.
The best chance for Illinois College to tie came in the bottom of the eighth. After a 1-2-3 inning from Guizzetti, Dormire led off the bottom of the frame with a single back up the middle. Peck then laid down his second sac bunt of the game to get Dormire in scoring position. Following a pitching change, Brady singled into shallow right, not deep enough for Dormire to score from second. Relief pitcher Ben Binversie then struck out Wade and Fredrickson hit a hard line drive straight at Coby Klar guarding the third base line to end the inning.
The Pioneers got an insurance run in the top of the ninth and moved their defense around entering the bottom of the ninth to bring in their closer, Godinsky. Godinsky got
Connor Melton to ground out back to him for the first out and then struck out Rooney and Lucchesi looking to end it.
Game Two: Grinnell 9, Illinois College 3
Illinois College hung tough for three innings, but Grinnell took the lead back for good in the fourth inning and shut out the Blueboys over the final six innings to take its second victory of the day. Charles Carr improved to 3-0 after throwing 5.2 innings.
Tyler Kozaritz was tagged for the loss to drop to 1-2 after giving up seven runs (five earned) in 4.2 innings.
Grinnell took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on a pair of doubles at the top of the order, but Peck answered back with a solo home run to left in the bottom half to knot the game at 1-1.
The runs continued in the second as the Pioneers went ahead, 2-1, on a double play groundout from Ravi Levens. The Blueboys again responded with a run of their own, tying the game on a sac fly from Rooney to bring Melton home.
In the third inning, Kozaritz had an easy go against the heart of the Grinnell order and IC took the lead in the bottom half of the frame. Dormire walked and stole second, then moved to third as Peck flied out deep to right field. On third with one away, a slow grounder from Brady allowed Dormire to score, giving Illinois College the 3-2 lead.
The lead quickly vanished as Grinnell scored three runs in the top of the fourth to take the lead for good. Godinsky walked to start the inning and stole second, then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Kozaritz retired the next two hitters and was one strike away from escaping the jam, but Levens came back to work a walk and Anthony Mack – 0-for-7 up to that point on the day – doubled to bring both runners home for a 4-3 advantage. A single by Ryan Penaflor then plated Mack to up the lead to two runs.
In the fifth, a Niko Takayesu double scored two more runs and ended the day for Kozaritz.
Dentler Loschen went the next 3.1 innings and gave up only one hit, but the Blueboys couldn't get enough going offensively. In the fifth, the bases were loaded with one out for Brady but he hit a stinging ground ball straight to third to start a 5-3 double play to end the inning. IC then left two runners stranded in the sixth and had a runner erased in the seventh after he was hit by what looked to be a single in between the first and second baseman.
The bad luck continued in the eighth as Wade hit a line drive that nearly took the head off of the umpire, but started a 4-6-3 double play. Grinnell scored two more times in the ninth off of
Ethan Crain for the final margin of victory.
