JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team earned two wins over Northland College on Saturday afternoon, improving to 7-7 on the season and making it to .500 for the first time this season after an 0-2 start to the year. The Blueboys had their second walk-off win of the year in the first game of the day, a 6-5 come-from-behind victory. After that, Northland pitching imploded and IC rallied once again for an 8-4 win.
Non-conference play continues at home on March 27 with a 3 p.m. game against Fontbonne University.
Game One: Illinois College 6, Northland 5
Trailing 4-0 after the top of the third inning, the Illinois College bats finally came to life at the perfect time, leading to a comeback that culminated with a game-winning hit from
Mason Durdel.
Dentler Loschen pitched the first four innings for the Blueboys, but it was
Christian Stawar who was nearly perfect over the last three innings and earned the win in relief to move to 3-0 on the season.
Northland took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on an infield single, then extended it out to 4-0 with three more runs in the top of the third. Needing to get back in it in a hurry,
Colin Dearing supplied a two-out single to score two runs in the bottom of the third to make it 4-2. The teams then traded runs in the fourth inning with the Blueboys being the beneficiary of a two-out error that allowed
Tim Sommerfeld to score, making it 5-3.
Once Stawar entered the game in the fifth, essentially all Northland offense disappeared. The Lumberjacks only had one baserunner reach in the final three innings and that was off of an IC error. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth,
Brendan Stanfield brought the Blueboys closer with a single back up the middle to bring
Dillon Hallemann home.
Illinois College left the bases loaded in the sixth inning without scoring, so it all came down to the bottom of the seventh. A Hallemann walk, Stanfield single and
Cade Hennemann walk loaded the bases with no outs in the frame. After a pitching change, Durdel pinged the first pitch he saw off the wall in left to score two runs and give the win to IC.
Game Two: Illinois College 8, Northland 4
Northland started fast in game two, putting three runs on the board against
Grayson Madey in the top of the first. The Blueboys went with a pitcher-by-committee approach in the contest and the IC bullpen shut down the game from there. The offense had three big innings to come back from 3-0 down to pull away and get the comfortable win.
Leading the charge in the bottom of the first were Hallemann and Stanfield, each with a two-out RBI to pull Illinois College back within one. Stanfield then tied the game at 3-3 in the bottom of the third, driving in
Bailey Reed. With two outs and the bases loaded,
Colin Edwards grounded a ball slowly towards shortstop. After fielding the ball, the Northland shortstop tried to go to third to get the force but Dearing barely slid in ahead of the ball, allowing Stanfield to score and give IC the 4-3 edge.
Kole Lowry worked a quick fourth inning and Illinois College blew the game open in the bottom of the frame. With the bases loaded and no outs, a balk brought one run home to make it 5-3. Stanfield then added yet another RBI with a bases-loaded walk. Two wild pitches after that brought runners in from third to make it 8-3.
That would be about all the offense Illinois College would need.
Jake Schippert (1-1) got the win, working two scoreless innings early on in the game. Lowry followed with two scoreless frames. Hallemann worked the sixth and had a pair of strikeouts. Northland got a single run back in the seventh against
Quinn Miller, but the Blueboys were never in any real danger of a Lumberjack rally.
