The Monmouth College baseball team split two wild games at home against Illinois College on Tuesday. . The Fighting Scots (8-15, 4-4) rallied to win game one 8-7 before letting two leads slip away in an 11-10 loss.
GAME ONE
Illinois College plated two unearned runs in the top of the first inning against
Dane Keeven (Edwardsville, Illinois). An error started the inning and with two outs a walk put runners on the corners. A double steal brought home the first run and single made it 2-0 before
Zach Almaguer (Monmouth, Illinois) picked a runner off third to end the inning.
The Scots got one back in the bottom of the inning.
Aidan Parkins (Monmouth, Illinois) and
Eric Campen (Washington, Illinois) both singled to start the inning.
Aiden Scott (Carrollton, Texas) got the Scots on the board with a double play to second as Parkins scored.
A single and two walks loaded the bases with one out for IC in the second. A double down the first-base line made it 4-1 and an error added another run. Keeven got a double play to get out
of the inning.
Jacob Blunck (Forsyth, Illinois) and Almaguer both walked with one out. With two down,
Hunter Wheat (Athens, Illinois) slapped a double to right to bring home two runs and cut the IC lead to 5-3.
Neither team scored until the fifth. Parkins led off with a single and moved to third on a single by Campen, Scott walked to load the bases and
Clayton Matkovic (Sherrard, Illinois) walked to force home a run. IC changed pitchers and
Jace Wilkerson (East Peoria, Illinois) drew a walk, tying the game at 5-5. However, three straight strikeouts left the bases loaded and the game tied.
Parkins singled with one out in the sixth and Scott walked with two down. Matkovic drew a walk and Parkins scored on an error to put Monmouth on top 6-5.
After retiring 14 straight batters, Keeven allowed a bloop single with one out in the seventh. Another single and a walk loaded the bases and Keeven gave way to
Will Baumgartner (Sycamore, Illinois). A single to left put IC on top 7-6
Campen singled with one out in the eighth and Scott delivered a single to right. Both runners moved up on a flyout and came around to score on a single to right by Wilkerson. With the Scots on top 8-7, IC got out of the inning with a strikeout.
After a leadoff single and one-out walk.
Ryan Garofoli (Chicago, Illinois) came out of the bullpen for the Scots. A flyout moved the tying run to third but Garofoli finished off IC with a groundout to shortstop.
In a no-decision, Keeven allowed five earned runs on six hits over 6 1/3 innings. He walked four and struck out two, Baumgartner (1-0) picked up the win with two shutout innings as he allowed two hits and a walk while striking out three. Garofoli picked up his second save with two outs on two batters faced.
GAME TWO
Game two saw three lead changes and two ties before IC prevailed 11-10. Wilkerson started on the mound and after shutting down the Blue Boys in the first inning, he had his Shohei Ohtani moment with a 3-run homer in the bottom of the first. The blast to right drove home Campen and Scott for a 3-0 Monmouth lead.
The visitors plated five unearned runs to take a 6-3 lead in the third inning. An error with one out opened the doors and IC took advantage with three RBI singles and a 2-run homer.
Monmouth got one back in the third. Wilkerson singled with one out and Almaguer singled with two down.
Grant Vessey (Elma, Washington) drove in
Logan Straube (Wheaton, Illinois) before the Scots left two on base.
IC made it 7-4 in the fifth against reliever
Clayton Rentschler (Riverton, Illinois), making his season debut. In the bottom of the inning, Wilkerson singled with one out and Straube singled to cut the IC lead to 7-5. Almaguer singled and with two down,
Gabriel Zeigler-Harris (East Peoria, Illinois) singled home two, tying the game. Parkins singled to put runners on the corners and the Scots took an 8-7 lead on a RBI fielders' choice for Campen.
Wilkerson launched his second homer of the game in the sixth inning, a solo shot to left-center. The Blue Boys tied the game with back-to-back homers off
Talyn Poole (Spring Hill, Florida) in the seventh inning.
IC scored twice off
Owen Wolfe (Galesburg, Illinois) in the eighth after an error kept the inning going. A 2-out triple made it 10-9 and a double put the visitors up two.
The Scots immediately got one back in the bottom of the inning as Matkovic homered to left-center. However, the next five batters were retired in order as IC won 11-10.
Wilkerson allowed one earned run on four hits over three innings with three strikeouts. Rentschler allowed one run on three hits with a strikeout in two innings of work.
Owen Alford (Hopedale, Illinois) threw a shutout inning with two hits allowed. Poole allowed two runs on two hits and a hit batter in 2/3 of an inning. Wolfe (0-1) took the loss with two unearned runs allowed on two hits in 1 1/3 innings. Garofoli threw a hitless inning with two walks and two strikeouts.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Wilkerson leads the Scots with five home runs on the season and he had his first multi-homer game with the Scots….Four of his home runs have come in MWC action…Parkins and Campen both had three hits in game one while Wilkerson had two…Wilkerson had four hits and four RBI in game two…He was 6-for-9 on the day with seven RBI…Almaguer, Vessey, Zeigler-Harris and Parkins had two hits in game two…Rentschler missed all of last season and the first half of this season with injuries…He last pitched on May 4, 2024 and he logged 22 innings as a freshman…Garofoli pitched in both games….Keeven threw a career-high 6 1/3 innings in game one…The Scots lead the all-time series 117-78 and are 6-4 in the last 10…Monmouth had won five straight at home against IC dating back to April 30, 2022 before the game two loss…The teams play a single game in Jacksonville next Wednesday…Monmouth plays a 3-game series at Knox this weekend, starting with a Noon double header on Saturday…The next home game is a Noon DH against Cornell on Saturday, April 18.
