By: Illinois College and Grinnell met in Monmouth this afternoon to complete a game that was started on April 8 before snow intervened.
Box Score
MONMOUTH, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team finished off one of the more interesting closing stretches to a season in recent memory on Monday afternoon with a 6-4 victory over Grinnell College. The Blueboys had taken a 5-2 lead on the Pioneers back on April 8 before the game was suspended due to snowfall. Resuming play at Monmouth College, IC held on for the victory to give
Jay Eckhouse a win in his final game as head coach. The Blueboys end their season at 18-17 (8-11 Midwest Conference).
Back on April 8, Illinois College fell behind, 1-0, in the first inning, but a big third inning pushed IC out to a 5-1 lead.
Grant Argyilan tied the game on a single and
Brendan Stanfield forced in the go-ahead run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Daniel Reed then cleared the bases with a double. In the fourth inning, Grinnell got a run back on a wild pitch, making it 5-2 with one out and runners on the corners.
That's where the action picked back up on Monday. Facing
Ethan Crain rather than the April 8 starter,
Tyler Lewis, Grinnell drove in the runner from third on a sacrifice fly, but the Blueboys got out of the inning with a 5-3 lead.
The speed of Andrew Shults allowed Grinnell to get another run closer in the seventh inning. After drawing a one-out walk, he stole second and then tagged up on a fly ball to right to move to third base with two down. A Zeke Taylor single into left scored him to make it 5-4.
Jake Schippert came on in relief of
Quinn Miller to start the eighth inning after Miller had given up just the one run over three innings of work. Schippert struck out two hitters and allowed just a two-out single in the eighth. The Blueboys then gave him an insurance run in the ninth inning as
Tim Sommerfeld doubled
Dillon Hallemann in with two outs for a 6-4 advantage.
After Schippert struck out the lead-off hitter in the bottom of the ninth, Grinnell put a runner on second following an error. A two-out single put runners on the corners, but Taylor lined out to
Mason Durdel in right for the final out of the game.
Joe Paparelli ended with a 3-for-4 game at the plate and Argyilan was 2-for-5.
Brennan Bergstralh went 2-for-3 after getting subbed in during the fourth inning on the restart. Schippert earned the save, his third of the season, all of which have come in the last three days.
For Eckhouse, his final victory gave him 260 in his 17-year career with the Illinois College baseball team.
