JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – In a closely-bunched Midwest Conference South Division, the margins are razor-thin for the teams looking to be one of the two squads who advance to the MWC Tournament. The IC baseball team showed how vital one day can be on Saturday, sweeping Grinnell College by scores of 12-2 and 13-2. In the process, the Blueboys leapt from a tie for last place in the division into a tie for second place in the division at 16-14 (5-5 MWC South). The Pioneers drop to 11-17 (5-5 MWC South).
The four-game series concludes tomorrow with two more games at Joe Brooks Field starting at 10 a.m.
Game One: Illinois College 12, Grinnell 2 (7 innings)
Things escalated quickly in the seventh inning to give Illinois College the run-rule victory. IC went into the seventh clinging to a 3-2 lead, but put nine on the board against three Grinnell pitchers.
Dentler Loschen went the whole way and got the win to improve to 4-1 overall on the season.
Colin Dearing ended with a game-high four RBIs and he got the scoring started with a double in the third inning that brought
Scott Kasting home for a 1-0 lead. In the fourth inning,
Cade Hennemann doubled in
Brendan Stanfield to make it 2-0 and Dearing got back in the act in the fifth with a RBI single to plate Kasting once again, increasing IC's lead to 3-0.
Brady LeSher tried to bring Grinnell back. In the bottom of the fifth – the Pioneers batted as the home team on Saturday – LeSher hit a solo shot to make it 3-1. The next inning he had an RBI single to cut it to 3-2 going to the seventh.
After the first two batters of the seventh reached for IC, Grinnell actually recorded an out during the next two at-bats without allowing a run to score. One out away from getting a chance to come to the plate with a chance to tie in the bottom of the seventh, things unraveled for Sam LaMotte and a pair of relievers. Dearing started it off by tripling in two runs. Following a walk,
Brendan Stanfield singled to center to score Dearing for a 6-2 lead. That ended LaMotte's day, but Nate Lu proceeded to allow all five of his hitters to reach base. By the time he was pulled in favor of Will Richman, the Blueboys had upped the lead to 12-2.
Joe Paparelli had the last hit, a double that scored Hennemann and
Tim Sommerfeld for the winning margin.
Kasting, Dearing and Hennemann all ended with a three-hit game. Loschen held Grinnell to seven hits and struck out four.
Game Two: Illinois College 13, Grinnell 2
The Blueboys pulled away gradually throughout the second game of the afternoon, but then put six on the board in the ninth inning. Ahead 2-1 after four innings of play, IC scored two in the fifth and one more in the sixth to take a 5-1 lead. In the eighth, the Blueboys plated two more and took a 7-2 lead into the ninth before an ineffective Grinnell bullpen helped IC blow the game open.
A two-run shot from Kasting to straightaway center field put Illinois College up, 2-0, after the third inning. Jack Hager answered back with a solo bomb in the fourth to cut IC's lead in half at 2-1. In the fifth inning, the Blueboys had runners reach second and third with no outs before Dearing and
Grant Argyilan delivered back-to-back sacrifice flies to increase IC's edge to 4-1.
Bailey Reed then made it 5-1 in the sixth with a moon shot solo home run that hit the roof of the Bruner Center.
A Hennemann RBI single in the eighth made it 7-1 before the Pioneers answered back with one run in the bottom of the frame to make it 7-2 heading into the ninth. Illinois College erased what little drama there may have been by scoring six times against a pair of Grinnell relievers. Once again, all six runs came with two outs in the inning and this time the Blueboys were helped along by an error that kept the inning alive. Sommerfeld and Kasting each drove in two with RBI singles back up the middle to make it 12-2 and
Brennan Bergstralh drove in the final run with a bases-loaded walk.
Kasting had a four-hit ballgame, driving in four runs.
Logan Love went 6.0 innings and struck out five, improving to 3-3 on the season.
Kole Lowry and
Jake Schippert combined for the last 3.0 innings and allowed just a single run over that span.
