By: Illinois College took two very different routes to end up with a pair of one-run wins over Knox on Wednesday afternoon.
Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – On a day that started with rain, ended with rain, and rained at all points in between, the turf on Joe Brooks Field allowed the doubleheader between the Illinois College baseball team and Knox College to continue and the Blueboys were able to end the 2017 season with 6-5 and 9-8 wins over the Prairie Fire.
Illinois College closes out the season with an overall record of 11-23 (6-14 Midwest Conference). Knox slips to 13-16 (6-10 MWC).
Game One: Illinois College 6, Knox 5
Dylan Jones was going strong most of the way until hitting a rough patch in the seventh inning.
Dentler Loschen relieved him and went the rest of the way, earning the win to improve to 3-3 when the Blueboys rallied in the ninth for four runs.
Jones stranded two Knox runners in the first and struck out the side in the second as part of a stretch in which he retired seven straight Prairie Fire hitters. The Blueboys got on the board in the bottom of the third when
Anthony Lucchesi singled to lead off the inning and went to second on a
Tim Sommerfeld walk. Following a successful
Joe Paparelli sacrifice bunt,
Taw Fredrickson scored Lucchesi on a RBI groundout.
An inning later, Illinois College doubled its lead when
Brennan Bergstralh singled to start the fourth inning, went to second on a balk and third on a wild pitch.
Brendan Stanfield singled Bergstralh home to make it 2-0.
Knox scored its first run of the game in the top of the fifth on a Paul Sanders single to score Kobe Shutter. The IC lead remained 2-1 until the top of the seventh when Sanders again singled in Shutter, tying the game at 2-2. Following a bobble by
Alex Lilly that kept the inning going, Drake Sykes hammered a double to the wall in left field to bring two more runs home and give the Prairie Fire a 4-2 edge.
The Prairie Fire added an insurance run in the top of the ninth that seemed like it might be enough to seal it. Dalton James singled with one away and went to second on a wild pitch. James then took third on a stolen base and the throw was wide of the bag, ricocheting off of James and towards the Knox dugout. James scampered home on the play to give the Prairie Fire a three-run lead going to IC's final turn at the plate.
Facing Knox's third pitcher of the game,
Wyatt Parker was able to reach on an error by Shutter to start the inning off. Pinch-runner
Jared Guizzetti went to second on a wild pitch and then scored on a RBI single by Paparelli to make it 5-3. Back at the top of the order, Fredrickson was hit by a pitch and Lilly moved both runners into scoring position on a sacrifice bunt. A Bergstralh single scored Fredrickson to close the Blueboys within one at 5-4.
Bergstralh got aggressive on the basepaths and stole second to again position two runners in scoring position with one away, but Knox got
Alec Wade swinging for the second out. With pinch-hitter
Mason Durdel at the plate, a soft line drive had just enough on it to get over the head of shortstop Matt McCaffery. Both runners were moving on contact and Bergstralh hustled in for the winning run.
Paparelli ended the game 3-for-3 with a run scored and a RBI to go along with a sac bunt. Bergstralh and Lucchesi also had two hits apiece.
Game Two: Illinois College 9, Knox 8 (8 innings)
Behind a solid performance by
Tyler Kozaritz in his Illinois College finale, the Blueboys built a sizable lead for most of the game, only to see that lead shrink considerably in the eighth inning. When the smoke had cleared, Knox's five-run eighth brought it within a run, but due to a combination of the wet surface and the approaching darkness, the game was called before the start of the bottom of the eighth. Kozaritz got the victory for the Blueboys, improving to 2-6.
Illinois College jumped on top in the bottom of the first, scoring a run when Bergstralh reached on a two-out error and then moved to third after back-to-back walks. When Stanfield showed his wheels and made it to the bag at third on a grounder off the bat of Durdel, Bergstralh raced home for a 1-0 lead.
Kozaritz cruised through the first three innings, facing the minimum. That brought IC back to the plate in the bottom of the third. Lilly and Bergstralh led off with consecutive singles and Stanfield connected on a double to left-center to make it 2-0. After that, Wade reached on a fielder's choice and Bergstralh scored when the Prairie Fire's catcher was unable to apply the tag in time. Later in the frame, Lucchesi added a sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 4-0.
Alex Bell and Bergstralh canceled each other out by each hitting a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, keeping IC's lead at four runs, 5-1. A wild pitch scored a run for Knox in the fifth inning to shrink the lead to 5-2, but the Blueboys responded with a three-spot in the bottom half. With one out and the bases loaded, Lilly singled through the left side of the infield to make it 7-2. The bases were loaded again later in the inning and Stanfield hit a sac fly out to deep right for an 8-2 advantage.
The teams played a scoreless sixth and then each put a run on the board in the seventh to make it a 9-3 contest going into the eighth. That's when things got dicey for the Blueboys. The Prairie Fire loaded the bases with one out against Kozaritz and IC moved to bring in
Elijah Schlabach in relief. The freshman struggled, giving up two walks and two hits, and the Blueboy lead was down to 9-7 when Schlabach exited for
Ethan Crain. Crain gave up a sacrifice fly to Dalton James, allowing a run to score but picking up a vital second out. Andrew Recker then grounded sharply back to Crain, who corralled it and flipped to Stanfield at first to end the theat.
When the top of the eighth was over, the umpires brought the coaches together and decided to end the game. Since more than five innings had been played, the game was deemed an official contest and the Blueboys were given the victory.
Stanfield was 3-for-3 in the game with a walk and three runs driven in. Lilly went 3-for-5 with a pair of RBIs. Bergstralh and Paparelli each ended with two hits apiece. By getting the final two outs of the game, Crain earned his second save of the season.
