By: After rallying from a 3-0 deficit, the Blueboys saw the comeback come up short as Ripon College homered in the bottom of the ninth to steal the win.
Box Score
MAUSTON, Wis. – The Illinois College baseball team came back from a three-run deficit in its first game of the Midwest Conference Crossover, but Ripon College came back to knot the game at 4-4 in the bottom of the eighth inning and then won the game on a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. The loss sinks the Blueboys to 8-19 (3-10 MWC).
Dalton Leischner got the start for Illinois College on Friday night and the freshman pitched well, though he did give up a pair of runs in the second inning and one more in the third. A single and a double to lead off the second set the table for a wild pitch from Leischner that gave the Red Hawks a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning, a ground out to shortstop was enough to tack on a second run coming in from third. In the third inning, a two-out RBI single by Michael Barnes gave Ripon a 3-0 advantage.
Illinois College left the bases loaded in the fourth inning, but otherwise didn't have much going against Ripon starter Drew Slade until the seventh. The Blueboys loaded the bases with one away and that spelled the end of the night for Slade, who made way for reliever Ben Folger. IC got to Folger right away, stringing together three straight singles from
Taw Fredrickson,
Alec Wade and
Brennan Bergstralh to tie the game at 3-3 before Ripon could end the inning.
The Red Hawks used another reliever for the eighth, but
Tim Sommerfeld led off with a single and reached third with one out.
Brendan Stanfield hit a ball deep into right-field foul territory for the second out, but it was enough to score the speedy Sommerfeld from third for a 4-3 lead.
IC's lead lasted only until the bottom of the inning. Against
Dentler Loschen, the Red Hawks led off the inning with a double and tied the game with a one-out double by David La Tour to make it 4-4 headed into the ninth.
In the last frame, the Blueboys went down in order and Loschen retired the first two Red Hawk hitters before issuing a walk to Isiah Ramos. That brought Barnes to the plate and he deposited a ball over the fence in right field for the walk-off victory.
Wade,
Eli Fox and
Alex Lilly all had two hits on the night for Illinois College. Leischner went 5.2 innings and gave up six hits and struck out four while getting the no-decision. Loschen fell to 2-3 on the year despite striking out four over 3.0 innings.
The MWC Crossover continues tomorrow for the Blueboys with a 2 p.m. game against St. Norbert College.
