JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team lost its first two Midwest Conference games of the season on Saturday to Monmouth College. The Fighting Scots left Joe Brooks Field with 8-6 and 9-2 wins over the Blueboys, improving to 15-6 (5-1 MWC South). IC, which was the only South Division team not in action last week, falls behind in the standings at 9-11 (0-2 MWC South).
The four-game series concludes tomorrow in Monmouth, Ill. with the first game getting underway at 12 p.m.
Game One: Monmouth 8, Illinois College 6
Illinois College led much of the way, but Monmouth took the lead in the eighth inning and held on for an 8-6 win in the opener.
The Fighting Scots jumped out on top with two runs in the top of the first, but Illinois College came back strong with four runs of its own in the bottom half.
Colin Dearing doubled home
Joe Paparelli to make it 2-1, then
Dillon Hallemann doubled in Dearing and
Brendan Stanfield for a 3-2 lead. Before the inning was through,
Cade Hennemann added on a RBI single to bring Hallemann in.
A solo shot in the third inning for Mike Dato made it 4-3, but both Tyler McDonald and
Dentler Loschen settled in from there. The lead remained 4-3 for the Blueboys until Monmouth was able to tie the score on a sacrifice fly in the top of the seventh. With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Paparelli and
Scott Kasting each collected hits to keep the inning alive and end the day of McDonald. Reliever Alex Sheetz then entered and immediately balked to bring Paparelli home for a 5-4 lead.
With two down in the top of the eighth, Monmouth strung together back-to-back run-scoring hits off of relief pitcher
Kole Lowry to take a 7-5 lead. Though Dearing would homer in the bottom half to make it 7-6, the Fighting Scots would tack on an insurance run in the ninth and reliever Ridge Greenman sat IC down in order in the ninth to earn the save.
Game Two: Monmouth 9, Illinois College 2
The momentum of Monmouth's late rally carried over to the second game as the Fighting Scots put three on the board in the top of the second inning off of Illinois College starting pitcher
Brian Kindt.
The Blueboys were unable to muster much off of Monmouth starter Conner Sharp and the Blueboys continued to trail, 3-0, until the sixth inning when the Fighting Scots tacked on another run for a 4-0 lead.
In the seventh, the Blueboys finally got to Sharp with two outs.
Eli Fox worked a walk and
Tim Sommerfeld singled him over to third. Paparelli then collected the RBI with a base hit up the middle to make it 4-1.
Any hopes of a comeback ended in the top of the eighth when Monmouth scored four runs to take an 8-1 lead. Tyler Ulfig had the big hit in the inning, clearing the bases with a double. The teams traded runs in the ninth, but Fox's RBI groundout for the Blueboys was not nearly enough to bring IC back into the game.
