JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team split a doubleheader with Coe College on Saturday as the Blueboys made their home debut in the 2019 season. Head Coach
Jacob Waddle won his first career home game at Joe Brooks Baseball Field against his old squad, 8-4, before Coe came out swinging in the second game and took home an easy win. The Kohawks move to 10-1 overall on the season while the Blueboys go to 4-6.
Illinois College closes out the weekend with a game tomorrow afternoon against Elmhurst College. The Blueboys and Bluejays will meet at approximately 2:30 p.m. following the conclusion of a game between Elmhurst and Eureka College, which gets underway at Joe Brooks Baseball Field at 11 a.m.
Game One: Illinois College 8, Coe 4
A huge first inning from the Illinois College offense and a complete game from
Dentler Loschen carried the Blueboys to a win over Coe in the first game of the day. Loschen went to 2-0 by limiting the Kohawks to seven hits and four runs (three earned).
Coe went down in order in the top of the first inning to bring Illinois College to the plate. The trouble for Kohawk starter Zach Kammin (2-1) started when a pop-up off the bat of
Joe Paparelli got lost in the sun on the left side of the infield and dropped in for a double.
Scott Kasting followed with a single and a
Bailey Reed single then brought Paparelli home to make it 1-0. Later in the inning,
Brendan Stanfield drove in two. Two hitters later,
Dillon Hallemann doubled to the wall to make it 4-0 and
Grant Argyilan followed with a single that scored Hallemann and
Cade Hennemann, making it 6-0 after one.
Loschen didn't allow a hit until there was one out in the third, and even that came as a result of a well-placed bunt. Coe was able to put two runs on the board that inning, however, thanks to three singles. The score remained 6-2 until the bottom of the fourth when Stanfield singled to center with two down, driving in Reed before
Colin Dearing was tagged out in a rundown.
Coe once again cut it to a four-run deficit, but the lead went back to five in the bottom of the sixth when Kasting blasted a solo home run to left, making it 8-3. The Blueboys had some trouble early in the top of the seventh, but Loschen induced three straight ground-ball outs to end it.
A total of six Blueboys had multi-hit days. Reed and Stanfield each were 3-for-4, while Paparelli, Kasting, Hennemann and Hallemann all had two hits apiece.
Game Two: Coe 20, Illinois College 2
Coe jumped on Illinois College started
Quinn Miller right away in the second game of the day. Miller took the loss as he was pulled in the top of the first inning, falling to 0-2 on the season. The Kohawks took a 7-0 lead after the first and extended it to 14-0 in the top of the third before Reed tagged a two-run home run to get the Blueboys on the board in the bottom of the third.
Despite that brief bright spot for IC, the Kohawks refused to be contained in the second game of the day and put five more runs on the board in the top of the fourth. The score remained 19-2 until the seventh when Coe added one last run for the final margin.
Reed was the only player with a multi-hit game for Illinois College, going 2-for-2.
Andy Cruthis was IC's most effective reliever, throwing 2.0 innings and giving up just a single hit.
