By: Illinois College had 14 of its 15 hits come from the 1-5 hitters in the lineup in a 10-5 win over Millikin University.
Box Score
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team earned the win in its final non-conference game of the season on Tuesday as the Blueboys cranked out 15 hits and took home a 10-5 victory over Millikin University. The Blueboys improve to 15-17 on the season ahead of their final Midwest Conference series of the season. Millikin drops to 16-18 for the year.
The game didn't get off to much of a fast start for the offenses, with the first two innings remaining scoreless for the Blueboys and Big Blue. It wasn't until the bottom of the third inning that things began to click for IC.
Austin Dormire was at bat with
Parker Murray on first base and his double to right-center advanced them both into scoring position.
Bryce Rooney then hit a sacrifice fly that allowed each runner to move up 90 feet, putting Illinois College on top, 1-0. An error by the Millikin third baseman put
Cain Brady on base and scored Dormire for a 2-0 lead, and that was followed by
Austin Peck with his team-leading seventh home run of the season to make it 4-0 going into the fourth inning.
Starting pitcher
Dylan Jones cruised through the first three innings and received an assist from his battery-mate in the fourth inning as Peck threw down to
Alec Wade and Wade relayed the ball to Brady to end the frame with Millikin still scoreless. With one down in the fourth, Dormire blasted his first home run of the season over the wall in center. Big Blue starter Ben Peters retired one more batter, but with Brady on first after a two-out single, Peck nearly homered a second time, instead settling for a double off the left-center wall and scoring Brady for a 6-0 lead.
Connor Melton was next up and doubled home Peck to make it 7-0 after four.
Millikin came back with three runs in the top of the fifth and a solo home run in the top of the sixth by Devin Crews ended Jones' day with the sophomore holding a 7-4 lead.
Tyler Kozaritz then retired the next two hitters in only four pitches to end the inning and get the game to the seventh.
Peck got the offense rolling again in the bottom of the seventh with a lead-off triple and Wade singled him in to make it 8-4 in favor of the Blueboys. Though Millikin tried to slow the momentum with a pitching change to side-arming righthander John Fisher, the Blueboys dealt with his funky delivery and added two more runs before the inning was over.
Given a six-run lead, Kozaritz mostly cruised down the stretch. The Big Blue put one runner on in the eighth but couldn't score him from second with one out. In the ninth, Millikin had its first two hitters reach, but with the lead the defense sat back and gave up a run on two consecutive groundouts before inducing a game-ending flyout to Melton in left.
Jones improved to 3-3 on the season with the win, going 5.1 innings and striking out six. Kozaritz picked up his fourth save by pitching the final 3.2 innings and allowing only two hits. The Blueboys pounded out 15 hits, 14 of which came from the first five hitters in the IC batting order. Dormire, Peck, Melton and Wade all had three hits and Brady added two.
Illinois College will play its final two home games of the season on May 7 as Knox College comes to Jacksonville for the first two of a home-and-home series this weekend. The Blueboys will celebrate Senior Day for six graduating members of the team prior to the first game, which will begin at 12 p.m.
