By: Illinois College lost its opener to Dominican, 10-4, but rallied for a 4-3 win against former MWC foe Carroll in the afternoon.
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
FORT MYERS, Fla. – The Illinois College baseball team began the 2017 season with a split of two contests, falling by a score of 10-4 against Dominican University (IL) to start the year, but coming back later in the afternoon for a 4-3 win over Carroll University.
The Blueboys continue their Spring Break trip to Florida tomorrow with a pair of seven-inning contests against Skidmore College (0-2) starting at 9 a.m. (EST).
Game One: Dominican (IL) 10, Illinois College 4
Illinois College fell behind, 4-0, after four innings, rallied to tie it, but then lost its opener to the Dominican Stars by a score of 10-4.
Dylan Jones went 4+ innings and took the loss on the hill, falling to 0-1 on the year.
The game was scoreless until the bottom of the third inning, when Dominican pushed three runs across. A lead-off single and walk put two runners on board. From there, a single, sacrifice fly, and double from the Stars plated the three runs before Jones could escape the jam. In the bottom of the fourth, a two-out error by IC allowed Dominican to tack on another run.
The Blueboys came back strong in the top of the fifth.
Eli Fox started the inning with a walk and then reached third after a Dominican error put two aboard with no one out. An
Austin Gusewelle triple down the right field line scored Fox and
Brennan Bergstralh to make it 4-2. The next batter up,
Brendan Stanfield, singled to bring Gusewelle home. With two outs and the bases loaded,
Connor Melton singled and scored Stanfield to knot the score up at 4-4.
Dominican answered immediately in the bottom of the frame. Two singles to start the inning and a hit batter loaded the bases with no outs. Another hit batter scored the go-ahead run and then a single brought two more runs home for a 7-4 Stars lead. Facing relief pitcher
Jared Guizzetti, Domincan struck for three more runs in the sixth inning. Guizzetti recorded outs on the first two batters of the inning, but a pair of walks and a double made it 9-4. Another double made it 10-4 before the Blueboys got out of the inning.
Daniel Supple took care of the rest for the Stars. Supple went 8.0 innings and struck out eight batters, improving to 2-0 on the season. Colton Malich pitched the ninth inning and gave up only one hit.
IC ended the game with 11 hits. Gusewelle was 3-for-5 with a pair of RBIs.
Alex Lilly,
Brendan Stanfield, and
Dalton Kerans all went 2-for-5 in the contest.
Game Two: Illinois College 4, Carroll 3
Facing former Midwest Conference foe Carroll, Illinois College picked up its first win of the year with a 4-3 victory. The Blueboys went on top, 3-0, in the second inning and held on from there.
Dillon Hallemann pitched 6.1 innings and got the win.
Ethan Crain threw the final 2.2 innings and got the save.
Illinois College had Melton on with two down in the second inning when a walk by Fox and three straight singles allowed the Blueboys to claim an early lead.
Drew Law singled in the first run and Lilly brought Fox home. The third run came in on a Gusewelle single.
Hallemann left the bases loaded in both the second and third innings without giving up a run, then retired the Pioneers in order in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Carroll got on the board in the seventh inning, which prompted a move to the bullpen. With the score 3-1 in favor of IC, an error brought one run home for Carroll, but the Blueboy defense recovered to get the tying run tagged out at home. The score going to the eighth inning was 3-2.
With two down and Stanfield on second in the top of the eighth inning, Illinois College got an important insurance run on a double by Melton into left field, making it 4-2. A lead-off triple by Carroll in the bottom half of the eighth eventually scored on a sac fly. In the bottom of the ninth, the Pioneers put their first runner aboard on a walk, but Crain got the next batter to pop out back to the mound and Carroll then hit into a double play on a lineout to end the game.
Melton led the offense with a 3-for-4 game, scoring one run and driving in another. Lilly had his second straight multi-hit game as well, going 2-for-4 with an RBI and a walk.
