JACKSONVILLE, Ill. - The Illinois College baseball team wrapped up its Midwest Conference opening weekend with the series finale against Monmouth College Sunday afternoon at Joe Brooks Field. The Blueboys
demolished the baseball and produced 22 hits that lead to a 16-9 victory over the Fighting Scots. With the victory, IC captures its first MWC win of the season and improves to 14-5 overall and 1-2 in conference play.
Starting pitcher
Jacob Smith earned his third start of the season as delivered a scoreless first inning. In the bottom of the first,
Ryne Mapes lead off the inning with a single to left. Two batters later,
Louie Bartletti gave IC the early 2-0 lead with a two-run home run over the center field wall. Following the blast by Bartletti,
Nolan Decker reached base after he was hit by the pitch and later advance to second. With two outs and a runner on second,
Jon Tate ripped a rbi double off the top of the center field wall that scored Decker for the 3-0 lead.
In the top of the second, the Fighting Scots (9-6) got a run back with a solo home run from Aidan Parkins. In the bottom half,
Logan Schweigert led off the inning with a double to left center. After a hit-by-pitch drawn by
Ryan Huskey and a single to center by Mapes, the Blueboys loaded up the bases. IC restored that run with a rbi by Bartletti that scored
Logan Schweigert that made the score 4-1.
In the third inning, Monmouth and IC each added a single run on the scoreboard. The Fighting Scots run was achieved on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch by Smith while IC's run came from a rbi by Huskey that scored Tate for the 5-2 lead.
In the top of the fourth, Monmouth added a single run with a solo home run from Jacob Blunck that made the score 5-3. In the top of the fifth inning, the Fighting Scots took the 8-5 lead with a four-run inning. In bottom half, IC got a run back on a rbi single to right from Mapes that scored
Connor Hennemann that made the score 6-8.
In the top of the sixth, the Fighting Scots got runners on the corners that promoted a IC pitching change to
Charlie Lardi. On the first batter Lardi faced, Lardi got Raul Guillermo to ground into a 6-4-3 double play that allowed a run to score for Monmouth that made the score 6-9.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Blueboys erupted for a seven-run inning that started a grand slam by Tate that gave IC the 10-9 lead. After back-to-back defensive errors by Monmouth that allowed Schweigert and Huskey to reach base,
Adam Passmore ripped a rbi single that scored Schweigert that made the score 11-9. Following a pitching change by Monmouth, Bartletti smashed a rbi single to right that scored Huskey for the 12-9 advantage. With the bases loaded, IC scored the final run of the inning that came on a rbi hit-by-pitch drawn by
Tyler Barker that gave IC the 13-9 lead.
Lardi returned to the mound for the Blueboys in the seventh and delivered back-to-back scoreless innings. In the bottom of the eighth, Bartletti secured his 33rd rbi of the season with a deep blast over the scoreboard for solo home run that gave IC the 14-9 lead. After two singles by Decker and Tate, Hennemann ripped a rbi single to left that scored Decker. Immediately following the single by Hennemann, Schweigert added the final IC run of the game with a rbi single to center that scored Tate that made the score 16-9.
In the top of ninth, Lardi closed out the game by striking out the side and was credited with the win.
For the game, the Blueboys had seven student-athletes record at least one hit as Mapes, Bartletti, and Schweigert led with four hits each. Bartletti and Tate led IC with five runs batted in each. On the mound, Smith delivered 3.1 innings and struck out one. Left-handed reliever in Lardi pitched four innings while striking out four.
The Blueboys will continue MWC play hosting the Maroons of University of Chicago on Friday, March 29 for a single game starting at 1:00PM in Jacksonville, Illinois.
