GALESBURG, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team struggled mightily on the road at Knox College on Wednesday afternoon, dropping games to the Prairie Fire by scores of 13-0 and 14-3. The Blueboys fall to 11-14 (1-5 Midwest Conference South) with the two defeats.
The four-game set concludes this Saturday at Joe Brooks Field. A twinbill between IC and Knox gets underway at 12 p.m.
Game One: Knox 13, Illinois College 0 (7 innings)
Knox jumped all over Illinois College pitching from the very start and the Blueboys could only answer back with four hits against Andrew Ponce as the Prairie Fire started the series off with an emphatic win.
Dentler Loschen was tagged with his first loss of the season to fall to 3-1.
After Illinois College went down in order in the top of the first inning, Knox immediately jumped on top with a three-run outburst in the bottom half. Juston Woodard led off with a double and would score one batter later. With two outs in the inning, Dalton James homered to make it a 3-0 game after one.
The Prairie Fire would go on to add single runs in the second and third innings to increase their lead to 5-0. Following a scoreless fourth inning, Knox added two more runs in the fifth. The biggest blow of the game came off the bat of Kobe Shutter in the sixth inning. With one down and the bases loaded, he connected on a grand slam to bring Loschen's day to an end. A pair of relief pitchers allowed two more runs to score before the Blueboys could escape the sixth.
Though the first two batters of the seventh reached for IC, Ponce was able to close it out and end the game after the top half of the seventh.
Game Two: Knox 14, Illinois College 3 (7 innings)
The Prairie Fire carried their momentum over into the second game of the afternoon, scoring all 14 runs in the first four innings to build a commanding lead. The Blueboys managed three runs, but did that damage on only five hits against EJ Roncone (4-1).
Brian Kindt (1-2) took the loss for IC.
Knox needed only a lead-off single from Woodard to score three runs in the bottom of the first inning. A series of walks, wild pitches and hit batters left the score at 3-0 before a flyout to left ended the threat. Illinois College was able to pull one run back in the top of the second when
Brendan Stanfield reached base and was singled to third by
Grant Argyilan.
Tim Sommerfeld knocked him in with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1.
Woodard again came through in the bottom of the second, driving in two runs to extend Knox's lead to 5-1. In a three-run Knox third inning, Woodard once again singled in two runs to widen the lead to 8-1.
Scott Kasting was able to double in the fourth inning to drive in
Cade Hennemann, cutting the deficit momentarily to 8-2. Things fell apart in the bottom of the frame, however, with Knox scoring six runs. Woodard had the big hit in the inning with a three-run blast that made it 14-2.
The Blueboys needed three runs in the seventh inning to keep the game alive, but only managed one. Kasting led the inning off with a single and was doubled home by
Eli Fox. IC would load the bases with two outs before the Prairie Fire got out of the jam to end the game.
