The Monmouth College baseball team couldn't complete the sweep on Sunday, falling to Grinnell College 15-4 in eight innings in the home finale. The Fighting Scots (13-20, 9-9) will play a must-win series next weekend at Lawrence (8-10) as both teams chase down fourth-place Cornell (9-8).
Grinnell got on the board in the top of the first against starter
Brandon Coats (Mapleton, Illinois). A lead off single and stolen base put a runner in scoring position. A 1-out single put the Pioneers on top and a 2-run homer with two outs made it 3-0. Another walk and wild pitch led to a fourth run on a single before Coats got out of the inning.
The Pioneers kept the bats going in the second with a walk and two singles to load the bases. A walk forced in a run and
Dane Keeven (Edwardsville, Illinois) took over for Coats. A fielders' choice failed to get an out and an error made it 6-0. A 2-run single and a wild pitch gave Grinnell a 9-0 lead before the Scots got a double play on a strikeout with a runner caught stealing.
Monmouth got on the board in the third.
Eric Campen (Washington, Illinois) led off with his first career home run, Monmouth's seventh of the series.
Jacob Blunck (Forsyth, Illinois) singled and moved to third on an errant pickoff throw.
Zach Almaguer (Monmouth, Illinois) singled to bring home a run and
Hunter Wheat (Athens, Illinois) doubled. With one out,
Aidan Parkins (Monmouth, Illinois) brought home Almaguer with a sacrifice fly.
Grinnell led 10-3 after four and added on in the fifth. With two on and two out, a 3-run homer put the visitors on top 13-3.
The Scots loaded the bases with nobody out in the sixth but couldn't score.
Clayton Matkovic (Sherrard, Illinois) reached on an error and
Jace Wilkerson (East Peoria, Illinois) singled before Campen walked. Matkovic was out at the plate on a fielders' choice grounder to first and Almaguer smoked a line drive but it was caught by the first baseman, who doubled off Blunck at first.
Wheat walked to start the seventh and Gabe Zeigler-Harris (East Peoria, Illinois) singled. Parkins reached on a fielders' choice with Zeigler-Harris out at second.
Aiden Scott (Carrollton, Texas).brought home Wheat with a sacrifice fly before an out at the plate ended the inning.
The run in the seventh extended the game and Grinnell plated two against
Clayton Rentschler (Riverton, Illinois) in the eighth. A double and single made it 14-4 and another double put Grinnell up by 11.
Owen Wolfe (Galesburg, Illinois) came out of the bullpen and got a strikeout to end the inning with runners on second and third.
Blunck singled with two outs in the eighth but a grounder ended the game with Grinnell winning 15-4.
Coats (2-5) took the loss as he allowed seven earned runs on six hits and three walks in one inning of work. Keeven allowed four earned runs on eight hits over five innings while walking two and striking out four. Rentschler allowed two runs on four hits and two walks in 1 2/3 innings. Wolfe struck out the only batter he faced.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Almaguer has an 11-game hitting streak…Blunck had two hits…Campen hit his first career home run, joining Almaguer, Wheat and Zeigler-Harris as Scots to accomplish that feat in the series…Parkins and Scott both had sacrifice flies…Keeven threw five innings for the third time this season, the first time as a reliever…He has at least four strikeouts in three outings…Wolfe moved into the top 10 in Monmouth history for career games pitched…The Scots finish the season 6-4 at home with all 10 games being Midwest Conference games…Monmouth leads the all-time series 147-70 and have won the season series two years in a row…The Scots play a non-conference game at Augustana at 6 p.m. Wednesday…Monmouth plays at Lawrence next weekend with two games on Saturday and one on Sunday.
