The Monmouth College baseball team won the opening game of Tuesday's double header 11-1 but they lost game two 11-5 at Knox, ending their season. The games, played in the pouring rain, left the Scots at 15-9 in the Midwest Conference and 17-11 overall. A sweep would have won the Southern Division for the Scots but instead Grinnell and Illinois College tied at 16-8 and IC will play for the MWC title against Beloit.
The Scots scored in the top of the first against Matt Shover. With one down,
Logan Komater (Ottawa, Illinois) was hit by a pitch and
Mike Dato (Oswego, Illinois) singled. Two wild pitches plated Komater before
Sean Davis (Barrington, Illinois) drew a walk. Davis stole second and
Justin Bost (Reynolds, Illinois) was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Â
Nate Melvin (Ottawa, Illinois) singled home Dato and Davis before Bost scored on another wild pitch for a 4-0 Scots lead.
Jake Brewer (Gibson City, Illinois) made it 5-0 with a RBI groundout as Melvin scored.
With a 5-1 lead the Scots added on in each of the next four innings. In the second Komater singled with two outs and Dato reached on an error. Davis singled home Komater for a 6-1 lead before the Prairie Fire got out of the inning. In the third,
Shamus Murphy (Milan, Illinois) singled with two outs and
Jordan Ball (Moscow Mills, Missouri) launched his first homer of the season for an 8-1 Scots lead.
Komater led off the fourth with another hit and with two outs he scored on a double by Bost. In the fifth the Scots made it 10-1 as Ball crushed his second homer of the game. Ball provided the final run as well when he doubled home Murphy in the eighth for the 11-1 lead.
Addison Fletcher (Monmouth, Illinois) improved to 6-0 with the win. He threw seven innings with one run allowed on three hits while striking out nine.
Arturo Monroy (Chicago, Illinois) allowed one hit and struck out two in his one scoreless inning.
Game twoÂ
The Scots fell behind early in game two as Knox scored on a walk and two singles from the first four batters. They loaded the bases and took a 5-0 lead on a grand slam. Two hits and an error in the second gave the Prairie Fire a 7-0 lead.
The Scots trailed 9-0 after four innings. With one on and two out,
Thomas Witty (Northbrook, Illinois) singled to move
Matt Temaner (Gurnee, Illinois) to second. Dato took over the Scots career home run lead when he launched his fifth of the season and 19
th of his career, a three-run shot.
The Scots chipped away at the deficit over the next two innings. In the fifth they loaded the bases on an error, hit batter and single. Witty beat out an infield single in the rain as
Grant Powers (Kellar, Texas) scored. Davis launched his second homer of the season to start the seventh, cutting the Knox lead to 9-5.
Down 11-5 the Scots left two on base in the eighth. They put two runners on base in the ninth with runners on first and second but Knox got a groundout to end the game. Â
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Davis finished the season with a 22-game hit streak… Ball had 10 total bases  and four RBI in game one…Dato moved into ninth on the Scots career total bases list with 216…Temaner finished 2
nd on the Scots career list with 129 runs scored, 11
th in hits (145), 11
th in steals (20), 8
th in at-bats (465), and 15
th in doubles (27)…Dato finished 1
st in HR (19) and HBP (29), 4
th in RBI (108), tied for 9
th in doubles (31), 9
th in total bases (220), 12
th in AB (420), 17
th in hits (132)…Ball led the Scots with a .370 average on the season while Bost hit .345 and Davis hit .325…Ball led the team with 37 RBI…Temaner led the team with 30 runs scored…Bost led the way with 40 hits…Dato led the team with five homers…Fletcher finished the season 6-0 with a 3.56 ERA in nine starts…He led the Scots with 55 2/3 innings...The Scots went 5-1 against Knox this season with four wins by the 10-run rule.