MONMOUTH, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team won its first Midwest Conference game of the season on Sunday, defeating Monmouth College, 7-6, in the first of two games. The Fighting Scots came back in the nightcap for a 6-5 win in 11 innings. The Blueboys are now 10-12 (1-3 MWC) on the year.
Next up for Illinois College is a Tuesday afternoon contest at MacMurray College in the final Mayor's Cup contest of the year. First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m.
Game One: Illinois College 7, Monmouth 6
After falling behind, 6-0, after two innings of play, Illinois College battled back to shock Monmouth in the first game of the day.
Logan Love settled in following his rough start and lasted 6.0 innings.
Grayson Madey earned his first win for the Blueboys and
Christian Stawar put together a six-out save.
The Fighting Scots scored four runs, all with two outs, in the bottom of the first and then added on two more in the second inning as the Blueboys struggled with two errors.
Things were looking bleak for Illinois College until the top of the fifth when Monmouth returned the favor with a pair of errors. That, combined with three IC hits in the inning, were enough for four runs to score.
Bailey Reed had the first RBI of the inning and
Colin Dearing then had a two-RBI single.
Cade Hennemann drove in the fourth run of the frame, driving in Dearing to make it 6-4.
The score remained there until the top of the eighth when Monmouth cycled through three relief pitchers before getting out of the inning. A
Scott Kasting RBI double made it 6-5 and Reed tied the score at 6-6, bringing in
Joe Paparelli. Dearing had the go-ahead RBI on a single that scored Kasting.
Madey faced the first batter of the eighth inning before making way for Stawar. The freshman got three outs and stranded the tying run on third base in the eighth. In the ninth, a lead-off single and a two-out error made things interesting, but Stawar struck Jake Starkey out swinging to end the game.
Dearing was the top hitter in the game for either team, ending 3-for-5 with three RBIs.
Game Two: Monmouth 6, Illinois College 5 (11 innings)
Illinois College overcame another deficit in the second game, but ultimately the Blueboys let a 5-3 lead slip through their grasp, giving up the tying runs in the seventh and then losing on a walk-off hit in the 11th inning.
Levi Parkevich was effective in relief, going 3.2 innings but getting saddled with the loss after the runner he allowed in extra innings eventually scored.
The Fighting Scots jumped ahead with two runs in the top of the first inning, but
Dillon Hallemann bounced back from a tough start to strike out the side and limit the damage. Illinois College came back to knot the score at 2-2 when Dearing came up in a bases-loaded situation and drove in a pair with a RBI single.
Though Monmouth would take the lead in the bottom of the third, 3-2, IC rallied again. Paparelli singled to score
Mason Durdel, making it 3-3 before a Kasting single and error allowed Paparelli to race home for a 4-3 lead. Paparelli added onto the Blueboy lead in the top of the sixth with a RBI single to bring
Tim Sommerfeld in.
In the bottom of the seventh inning it was Monmouth's turn to fight back into it. The Fighting Scots plated two, tying the game at 5-5 before Parkevich could end the threat. The relievers for both teams locked in for the eighth and ninth, hardly allowing a single base-runner. The go-ahead run for the Blueboys was stranded on third in the top of the 10th inning, keeping Monmouth in it. After Starkey was issued a lead-off walk in the 11th, Parkevich was pulled. Following a sacrifice bunt that moved him up 90 feet, Harry Sanchez singled to left to bring him around for the winning run.
Illinois College totaled 10 hits in the game. Kasting was 3-for-6, while both Paparelli and Dearing had two hits apiece.
