Knox Dampens Mood on Senior Day

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team suffered a pair of defeats on Saturday against Knox College in the final home games of the season at Joe Brooks Field. On Senior Day for D.J. Davis, Austin Dormire, Dawson Loschen, Parker Murray, Austin Peck and Dylan Sunderland, the Prairie Fire scored a late run to pick up a 3-2 win in the opener and then came back strong after a rain delay to claim the second game by a score of 12-9.

Illinois College (15-19, 2-12 MWC South) and Knox (10-22, 3-11 MWC South) close out their four-game set tomorrow in Galesburg with a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m.

Game One: Knox 3, Illinois College 2
D.J. Davis pitched a complete game for the fifth time this season, but an unearned run in the ninth proved to be the difference as Knox took the opener from the Blueboys. Davis went to 4-4 with the loss despite throwing a five-hitter and striking out 11, setting the single-season record for strikeouts at IC in the process.

After a scoreless first inning, Knox took the lead in the second on a solo home run by Ryan Weitendorf. Davis thought he had Weitendorf rung up on a curve ball the pitch prior to the home run, but it was called a ball and the Prairie Fire first baseman sent the next pitch over the wall in left field. 

Illinois College couldn't get to Knox starting pitcher Alec Jordan until the bottom of the sixth inning. Bryce Rooney led off that frame with a walk and Cain Brady doubled to the gap in right-center to knot the score at 1-1. The Blueboys couldn't push ahead though, despite having Brady on second with no outs.

The tie game didn't last long as the Prairie Fire came back to take the lead in the top of the seventh. A lead-off walk to Drake Sykes was followed by consecutive batters reaching base on bunts to load the bases with no outs. A one-out single by Kam Wells staked Knox to a one-run lead, but Davis avoided any further damage as Dawson Loschen made a solid play to get the force at home for the second out and Brandon Crose popped out to shortstop to end the inning.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Blueboys tied the game on relief pitcher Alex Bell. Brady hit a ground-rule double to right field and a passed ball put him on third with one out and Austin Peck on first. Connor Melton then hit a slow roller to second. Knox went for the double play but Melton hustled down the line to beat the throw to first and Brady scored to tie the game up at 2-2 going to the ninth.

In the ninth inning, two errors by the Illinois College infield allowed a run to come around to score, giving Knox a 3-2 lead. Facing Bell again in the bottom of the ninth, the Blueboys went down in order to bring the first game to a close.

Game Two: Knox 12, Illinois College 9
The second half of the doubleheader can be divided into a before-and-after. Before the rain delay, Illinois College led Knox, 4-0, going into the top of the third inning. After the rain delay, the Prairie Fire scored nine unanswered runs to turn a 6-3 deficit into a 12-6 lead before the Blueboys tried to rally in the bottom of the ninth.

Dylan Sunderland controlled the action through the first two innings, but ran into trouble when he came out after the hour-plus delay. On the other hand, Tom Janczur gave up four runs in the bottom of the first but then shut the Blueboys down with the exception of a two-run fourth inning for IC. He left with runners on in the ninth and he ended up being charged with those, but still earned his first win of the season.

Janczur struggled to find the strike zone in the first and gave up singles to Dormire and Rooney to start the game before walking Brady and Peck to give IC a 1-0 edge. He received some help from his defense with a double play that brought a run home, but with two down and a runner still aboard, Taw Fredrickson drilled a pitch over the wall in center to put the Blueboys up, 4-0.

Sunderland pitched a perfect first inning and left two aboard in the second before the delay. After the game restarted, Knox scored three runs on three hits and an error to make it a 4-3 game.

Illinois College appeared to regain control of the game in the bottom of the fourth as Rooney hit a two-out double to right field to plate Anthony Lucchesi and Dormire for a 6-3 lead, but Sunderland couldn't recover his form from early in the contest and the Prairie Fire scored three runs in the fifth to tie the game and got a two-run homer from Tristyn Ruiz in the sixth to end the afternoon for Sunderland with the Blueboys now trailing, 8-6.

The runs kept coming as IC errors mounted and the Prairie Fire tacked on one in the seventh and three more in the eighth for a 12-6 lead.

Down to their last turn at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, Illinois College loaded the bases on Janczur with no outs to end his day. Sykes came on in relief and unfurled a wild pitch to score Brady from third. After getting a strikeout for the first out of the inning, an infield single by Lucchesi brought Peck home and Dormire drew a two-out walk to make it 12-9. With Rooney at the plate representing the winning run, Sykes got his third strikeout of the inning to end the game.

IC ended with 11 hits in the game, getting two apiece from Dormire, Rooney, Lucchesi and Parker Murray. Domire and Brady scored two runs and Rooney and Fredrickson each drove in two.