JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College baseball team fell short in its quest for a Midwest Conference Tournament bid on Sunday at Joe Brooks Field. The Blueboys needed to sweep a doubleheader against Cornell College in order to have any kind of shot of moving on to next week's tournament, but the Rams hung on in the opening game by a score of 6-5 to eliminate IC.
The Blueboys battled back for a 9-7 win to close out the afternoon, ending the year at 18-18 (7-9 MWC South Division) on the season. The Rams (22-16, 9-7 MWC South) move on and will take the No. 2 seed from the South Division into next weekend's four-team tournament.
Game One: Cornell 6, Illinois College 5
In the first game of the afternoon, Illinois College (batting as the away team) took a 1-0 lead in the first inning but Cornell scored six unanswered to take a 6-1 edge after six innings. Though the Blueboys came back with a four-run seventh inning, the Rams hung on for the one-run victory to end IC's postseason quest.
Things started out nicely, if not a little controversially, for Illinois College in the top of the first.
Joe Paparelli led off with a single and moved up on a wild pitch.
Scott Kasting lined out to center field, but Caleb Wichman lost the ball in the transition from catch to throw. Ultimately, the play stayed as an out though it could have been called either way. With one away in the inning,
Colin Dearing hit a RBI groundout to give the Blueboys an early lead.
Cornell answered back with three quick runs against starting pitcher
Brian Kindt in the bottom of the first. Illinois College was in win-at-all-costs mode, so Kindt was pulled after the first inning, though the Rams came back with a run against reliever
Austin Newton in the bottom of the second as well. The game cruised along through the middle innings before Cornell added two more runs with a Matt Stone double in the bottom of the sixth to score two and make it 6-1.
The Blueboys almost came all the way back to tie it in the top of the seventh, putting four runs on the board.
Cade Hennemann and Paparelli singled against Tyler Lederhos to knock Cornell's starter out of the game. Hunter Davis then came in and struggled, hitting two batters and letting the score get to 6-3 before
Eli Fox hit a ringing single into left field, driving in
Bailey Reed and Kasting to make it 6-5.
In the ninth, IC had runners on first and second before Fox hit a hard grounder down the third-base line. However, Cale Jamesson made a nice play and was positioned right over the bag, stepping on it for the force out to end it.
Game Two: Illinois College 9, Cornell 7
After losing the first three games of the series by a combined four runs, Illinois College closed out the season by taking a close one of its own. Though a 7-3 lead after six innings dwindled to a single run after seven, the Blueboys tacked on two insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning and
Christian Stawar closed out the game to add onto his single-season program record with six saves.
Dillon Hallemann set the tone for Illinois College in the top of the second with a two-run homer off of Cornell starting pitcher Zachary Greenwald. Jamesson answered back with a two-run shot of his own in the bottom of the third to give the Rams a 3-2 lead.
Quinn Miller exited the game after throwing four innings for the Blueboys, trailing by that single run.
Illinois College tied and then took the lead in the top of the fifth as
Brendan Stanfield doubled home
Tim Sommerfeld to knot it up at 3-3. Later in the inning, Reed singled home Stanfield for a 4-3 advantage.
D.J. Ramos entered in the bottom of the fifth and quickly tore through the Cornell lineup for a 1-2-3 inning. Sloppy defense by Cornell and three hits from the IC offense then allowed the Blueboys to grow their lead to a 7-3 bulge after the top of the sixth. Sommerfeld and Dearing each had RBIs in the frame.
Ramos worked another quick inning in the sixth without giving up a hit and then retired the first hitter of the bottom of the seventh before walking Marcelo Tanon to end his day. That base on balls would end up being the first of six walks by three Illinois College relievers in the inning, giving Cornell the chance to score three runs without collecting a single hit in the inning. By the time Paparelli snared a Lucas Larson line drive in center for the final out of the inning, IC's lead was down to 7-6.
In the eighth, Cornell thought it had scored the tying run on a line drive to left off the bat of Wichman. With one down and a runner on third, Wichman scorched a line drive that was caught by a diving
Brennan Bergstralh. His throw home was late and the runner scored, however a check on the play at third ended with Tanon being called out for leaving the base early.
Illinois College scored two insurance runs in the top of the ninth. With two down and the bases loaded, Stanfield singled through the left side of the infield to drive in
Mason Durdel. Dearing then worked a walk to score another run for a 9-6 lead. Stawar came in and promptly got the first hitter of the inning out before Cornell managed to load the bases against him. The Rams scored one run in the frame on a sacrifice fly to center that Paparelli dove and snagged to limit the damage. The game then ended with another pop fly to center to bring the game and the IC season to a winning close.
In his final game for the Blueboys, Kasting went 4-for-6 at the plate.
Colin Edwards added a 3-for-5 day, while Stanfield and Reed each had two hits apiece.
