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Box Score 2 AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The Illinois College baseball team was unable to slow down the offenses of either Aurora University or Clark University on Sunday in the team's first day of a Spring Break trip to Florida. The Blueboys fell to the Spartans in the early game, 12-2, in seven innings. Later on, the Cougars were 14-8 winners over IC.
Illinois College is back in action tomorrow morning with a pair of seven-inning contests against Grove City College starting at 10:30 a.m. (EST).
Aurora 12, Illinois College 2 (7 innings)
The Spartans scored the first 10 runs of the game and cruised to a 7-inning victory over the Blueboys in each team's opener in Florida.
Nolan Struhs (0-1) was tagged with the loss.
Aurora scored its first run on a RBI groundout in the top of the first and then later added two more runs on a two-out single in the second. Ahead 3-0, the real damage came in the third inning as the lead swelled to 10-0 against Struhs and relief pitcher
Levi Parkevich.
After Parkevich pitched a scoreless fourth inning for Illinois College, the Blueboys created some offense with consecutive one-out singles from
Bailey Reed and
Colin Dearing. With Reed on third,
Eli Fox drove him in on a fielder's choice grounder to make it 10-1. The teams traded runs in the fifth inning with the Blueboys scoring on a
Scott Kasting triple and a RBI single from
Joe Paparelli, leaving the score 11-2.
Aurora pushed its lead back to 10 runs in the top of the seventh, scoring on a wild pitch. Illinois College loaded the bases in the bottom half but were unable to score, ending the game early.
Andy Cruthis provided effective relief late in the game for IC, throwing 2.2 innings and allowing one run while striking out a pair.
Clark 14, Illinois College 8
Six errors from the Illinois College defense allowed Clark to score seven unearned runs in the nightcap for the Blueboys on Sunday. Down by 12 runs heading into the seventh, IC managed to cut the Clark lead in half, but couldn't make up all of it.
The scoring opened for Illinois College in the top of the first inning. After the first two hitters were retired, Reed and Dearing hit consecutive singles and
Eli Fox was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Dillon Hallemann singled from there, making it 1-0 in favor of the Blueboys.
Clark took the lead with a two-out rally in the bottom of the second, pushing four runs across. Three more runs scored in the third inning, including a pair that were unearned, making it 7-1.
Mason Durdel drove in a run for IC in the top of the fourth, but that was answered by a five-spot from the Clark offense to give the Cougars a 12-2 edge. That grew to 13-2 and then 14-2 with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings.
The Blueboys needed three runs in the seventh to keep the game alive and they did one better, scoring four runs to make it 14-6. Paparelli drove in the first run of the frame and another IC run later scored on a double play. A Clark error off the bat of Hallemann allowed a pair of unearned runs to score for the Blueboys.
Following a scoreless eighth inning, Durdel drove in Hallemann and Fox in the ninth as part of a two-out rally, but the game ended one batter later.
Brian Kindt (0-1) was handed the defeat on Sunday, allowing nine runs (six earned).
Cullen McBride pitched well late in the game, going the final 3.0 innings and giving up a single unearned run while striking out a pair.
