Monmouth Evens Series with Blueboys

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team saw its three-game winning streak come to an abrupt end and Monmouth College was able to earn a split of the four-game series between the teams on Saturday with 13-2 and 7-5 wins over the Blueboys. IC drops to 7-18 (3-9 Midwest Conference) while the Scots improve to 10-11 (4-4 MWC). 

Illinois College plays its final home non-conference game on April 18, welcoming in RMU-Springfield for a Tuesday matinee at 3 p.m.

Game One: Monmouth 13, Illinois College 2 (7 innings)
Monmouth homered three times and scored the first nine runs of the game to cruise past Illinois College in the first game of the day. Dillon Hallemann (1-5) took the loss after allowing a pair of first-inning home runs to the Scots.

After Hallemann got the first batter of the game to groundout to shortstop, Ryan Sparks hit a solo shot to center to put the Scots on top, 1-0. A walk to catcher Dayton Ince put a man on base for a two-run blast by Austin Hardy, making it 3-0. Back-to-back doubles from Grant Myers and Jake Starkey followed for a 4-0 lead. After a walk, Hallemann was lifted for Ethan Crain and the junior was able to get out of the inning without further damage.

The Scots tacked on another run in the third inning on a sacrifice fly, and an Illinois College error with two outs opened the floodgates. One run scored on the error and Hardy then cleared the bases with a double to increase Monmouth's advantage to 9-0 going to the bottom of the third.

Alex Lilly singled to start the third inning and Taw Fredrickson then made it 9-2 as he doubled in Lilly, advancing to third on the throw home and scoring after the catcher made a throwing error.

That would be all the offense IC would muster however. Monmouth scored twice in the sixth on a solo home run and RBI single. In the seventh, the lead reached 10 runs after Ince singled in Sparks. Starkey later added a RBI groundout and the Blueboys couldn't keep the game going any further, leaving a pair of runners stranded to end the game in the bottom of the seventh.

Game Two: Monmouth 7, Illinois College 5
A five-run outburst from Monmouth to open the second game of the day threatened to put the Blueboys away early, but IC fought back and very nearly came away with a walk-off win. Tyler Kozaritz (1-5) went four innings before making way for Ben Kettelkamp and Quinn Miller, who combined to allow just one more run from the Scots in the final five innings.

Monmouth banged out six hits and earned a walk and a hit by pitch in the top of the first to take a 5-0 lead. Kozaritz was able to get Sparks down on strikes to end the inning and leave the bases loaded. Fredrickson then brought IC a run closer with a lead-off solo shot to center in the bottom of the inning, making it 5-1. 

Hardy gave Monmouth a five-run cushion again in the top of the fourth with a home run to left-center. The Blueboys responded yet again with a run however, as Dalton Kerans doubled with one out and Brennan Bergstralh singled into right field to bring him in for a 6-2 ballgame.

Nic Stevens led the seventh inning off for Monmouth with yet another solo home run and the game stayed at 7-2 until the bottom of the ninth. Mason Durdel doubled with one out to put a runner on and Bergstralh singled into right field for another RBI, making it 7-3. Tim Sommerfeld followed with a single and Dentler Loschen singled through the right side of the infield to bring Bergstralh home for a 7-4 game. 

Following a pitching change, Fredrickson singled in Sommerfeld to cut IC's deficit to two and bring the winning run to the plate. Alec Wade gave the ball a ride, but hit it to the deepest part of the park in center field and it was hauled in on the warning track. The game ended when Brendan Stanfield grounded into an out at third base.