By: The Pioneers made it four in a row over Illinois College with 7-5 and 8-1 victories on Sunday.
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Box Score 2
GRINNELL, Iowa – The Illinois College baseball team fell to 0-4 in Midwest Conference play on Sunday with 7-5 and 8-1 defeats at the hand of Grinnell College. The Blueboys are now 3-13 on the season while the Pioneers improve to 10-7.
Illinois College concludes a five-game road swing on April 5 with a non-conference matchup against Eastern Illinois University. The Blueboys and Panthers are scheduled for a 3 p.m. start.
Game One: Grinnell 7, Illinois College 5
Grinnell blew open the first game on Sunday with a six-run third inning before holding on in the ninth to get the win.
Dentler Loschen took the loss to fall to 0-2 on the year.
Loschen retired the first six Grinnell batters he faced in the game before Julian Cabrera led off the third inning with a single up the middle. There were two on with two outs in the inning when the Pioneers did all their damage. Five hits and a walk put six runs on the board and spelled the end of the day for the IC sophomore.
Ethan Crain came on in relief and got out of the jam, eventually throwing the rest of the game and giving up just one run in 6.1 innings of work.
Illinois College cut into the lead in the bottom of the fifth when
Alec Wade doubled home
Dalton Kerans and
Brendan Stanfield, making it 6-2. A sacrifice fly by Grinnell increased the lead to 7-2 in the sixth inning.
The score stayed there until the ninth inning.
Alex Lilly led off the inning with a single and
Tim Sommerfeld was hit by a pitch. A one-out Stanfield single loaded the bases for Kerans and he singled in the first run of the frame to make it 7-3. After a pitching change, a Wade single made it 7-4 and forced another Pioneer pitching change. Following a Grinnell error that brought another run home, it was 7-5 with just one out in the inning but Ben Binversie locked down the Blueboys from there, getting a pair of flyouts to the outfield to end the game.
Game Two: Grinnell 8, Illinois College 1
Tied at 1-1 through four innings, Grinnell scored runs in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth to pull away and get the sweep.
Dillon Hallemann fell to 1-3 on the season with the loss on the mound for the Blueboys.
Grinnell had runners on the corners with no outs in the third inning and scored on a sacrifice fly for a 1-0 lead. Illinois College got out of the inning when
Seth Woollen snared a ball in right field and threw to first base for the double play.
Sommerfeld led the bottom of the third off with a single and
Austin Gusewelle followed him with a double to put two on. Stanfield was next up and he flied out to deep center to bring Sommerfeld home, tying the game at 1-1.
The Pioneers pulled ahead with three runs in the fifth inning and tacked two more on in the sixth, one in the seventh and one in the eighth. The Blueboy offense went silent after falling behind, going down in order from the fourth inning on.
