KISSIMMEE, Fla. – The Illinois College baseball team tore the cover off the ball on Friday, totaling 39 hits and 19 runs to end the team's trip to Florida with a pair of wins. The Blueboys held off two late charges from Illinois Wesleyan University and Fredonia State University, defeating the Titans, 12-9, and taking the Blue Devils down in extra innings, 7-6.
Now 3-5 on the season, Illinois College comes home for four home games next weekend at Joe Brooks Field. First up is a doubleheader with Coe College on March 16 starting at 12 p.m.
Game One: Illinois College 12, Illinois Wesleyan 9
Dentler Loschen overcame four errors committed by the Illinois College defense over his 6.0 innings, leaving the game with a 5-4 lead for the Blueboys and then watching as his team's offense took over in the final three innings to defeat Illinois Wesleyan. The closing stages of the game were more interesting than they could have been. The Titans rallied against IC relief pitching, but
Christian Stawar was able to close it out for his first career save.
Down 1-0 after the first inning, Illinois College took its first lead of the game in the top of the second when
Will Boyd singled in
Brendan Stanfield and
Colin Dearing. Illinois Wesleyan took the lead back on two unearned runs in the bottom of the third, but the IC offense responded again.
Cade Hennemann connected on a double down the left-field line to reach with one away and a Boyd bunt resulted in a bad throw to first to bring Hennemann home to tie it. Two batters later,
Joe Paparelli singled home Boyd for a 4-3 lead.
The Titans scored their only earned run against Loschen in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly to level it. Illinois Wesleyan then went to its bullpen in the top of the fifth and Hunter Simon immediately put two runners on. One of those,
Eli Fox, came in to score on a Hennemann single for a 5-4 lead.
Hennemann drove in two more runs in the top of the seventh and relief pitcher
Dillon Hallemann faced the minimum in the bottom half to make it 7-4.
Bailey Reed,
Adam Braude and Stanfield all drove in runs in the top of the eighth, extending Illinois College's advantage all the way to 11-4.
Illinois Wesleyan rallied while barely having to swing its bats in the bottom of the eighth. A single and four consecutive walks made it 11-6 and the Titans were able to close to within 11-7 before
Kole Lowry came on and got out of the inning.
A
Tim Sommerfeld triple and Paparelli RBI single seemed to lock things up in the top of the ninth with a 12-7 edge, but IWU refused to go quietly. The Titans led off the bottom of the ninth with a solo shot to left and got it to 12-9 before Stawar entered the game. With two outs in the inning, a walk to John Bosco loaded the bases and brought the game-winning run to the plate, but the Blueboys finally ended it by inducing a popout down the line in left that
Scott Kasting made a nice running grab on to clinch the win.
Paparelli and Hennemann each ended the afternoon with four hits. Reed added three, while another three players – Braude, Sommerfeld and Stanfield – all had two.
Game Two: Illinois College 7, Fredonia 6 (10 innings)
There was more late drama in the nightcap, but the Blueboys once again overcame some self-inflicted damage to get the victory. Stawar got the win, locking up Fredonia for 1.1 innings before Reed won the game with a walk-off double in extra innings.
Facing a Fredonia team playing its first game in Florida, the Blueboys were sharp to start and loaded the bases in the bottom of the first with one away. A Stanfield sacrifice fly gave IC an early 1-0 advantage. The Blue Devils were giving work to a number of pitchers and went to the bullpen right away in the second inning. Illinois College took advantage against reliever Ryan Howard with five hits and an error to plate four more runs and take a 5-0 lead. Braude, Kasting and Reed had the RBIs in the inning for the Blueboys.
The Blue Devils managed to cut it to 5-3 in the third and fourth innings against starter
Austin Newton, but
Jake Schippert was strong out of the bullpen starting with the top of the fifth. The IC junior kept Fredonia off the scoreboard in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, then got the first two outs of the eighth before being lifted. The Blueboys seemed to be cruising with a 6-3 lead in the eighth before a two-out error allowed two runs to score and ignited the Fredonia comeback.
In the top of the ninth, Ty Phillips reached on an infield single and proceeded to steal second and third base. He was then driven in by a sac fly to knot the score at 6-6. IC was unable to find the winning run in the bottom of the ninth, so the game was off to extras.
Stawar was unflappable in the pressure situation, striking out two batters looking and putting Fredonia down in order in the top of the 10th. With the Blue Devils now deep into their bullpen, the Blueboys took advantage. Kasting led off the inning with a single and he moved to second when
Colin Edwards walked on four pitches. The next hitter, Reed, launched a ball deep to the left-center gap to drive in Kasting, ending the game on a walk-off for a 7-6 victory.
Reed ended the game with an astounding 5-for-6 night. Kasting also had three hits in the game. Paparelli, Stanfield and Braude all had two hits as well.
