Sewanee Takes First Two Against Eureka
SEWANEE, Tenn. — The Eureka baseball team fell victim to a walk-off victory and a lack of timely hitting against Sewanee on Wednesday afternoon at Montgomery Field.
Frist, the Tigers edged the Red Devils with a two-run rally in the eighth inning and came away with a 5-4 victory. Then, they bested the visitors 4-1 in Game 2.
EC fell to 2-3 on the season and Sewanee improved to 11-5. Due to weather, the three-game series will conclude on Thursday at the rescheduled time of 10 a.m.
Game 1: Sewanee 5, Eureka 4 (8 innings)
After four scoreless innings, Eureka finally broke a 3-3 tie in the top of the eighth of what was supposed to be a seven-inning game.
It happened after Mike Redmond (Chicago, Ill./St. Rita) led off with a single, advanced to third on a pair of groundouts and scored on a balk to make it 4-3. The Red Devils were three outs away from sealing a road win to open the series, but with three hits and an error, the Tigers put together a game-winning rally that ended with a walk-off RBI single by Bryce Benedict.
Shell Holden got the win for the Tigers despite giving up the game-tying run on two hits in the eighth inning.
Mason Diederich (Washington, Ill./Washington) took the loss for EC after allowing two runs on three hits in 3 1/3 innings. The sophomore struck out three and only walked one after coming in for starter Gregory Cluskey (East Peoria, Ill./Metamora) in the fifth. Cluskey, who recorded the win in EC's opener against Northland on Friday, allowed three runs on six hits and three walks in four innings.
The Tigers scored the first run of the game in the first inning. EC answered in the second when freshman Jeffery Wileaver (Monticello, Ill./Monticello) led off with the first home run of his career — a solo shot that started a three-run rally.
Braxten Ary (Green Valley, Ill./Midwest Central) later singled to drive in a run and Austin McCarty (Oakwood, Ill./Oakwood) scored an unearned run to give EC a 3-1 advantage.
The Tigers responded with two runs in the bottom half, and the score remained tied until that eventful eighth inning.
Redmond and Wileaver both went 2-for-4 for the Red Devils, while Jake Carter (Carlinville, Ill./Carlinville) contributed a double.
Game 2: Sewanee 4, Eureka 1
Sewanee didn't overwhelm Eureka in Game 2, but the home team posted four runs on seven hits, scoring twice in the first and twice in the third. And that was enough.
EC only managed five hits in the game. The Red Devils' lone run came on a leadoff home run by Hunter Triche (Gray, La./H.L. Bourgeois). It was the first dinger of the freshman's career.
With two outs in the third, senior Jeremy Sinople (Chicago, Ill./St. Rita) doubled, Redmond singled and senior Grant Mullin (Chicago, Ill./St. Rita) was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Triche. But this time, the freshman flew out to left field to end the threat.
Nothing came of it when the team put a runner on in the fifth and sixth, either.
Sewanee's Josh Roberts, Garrett Liebe and Joey Calcagno all doubled for the Tigers in Game 2. J.D. Theile pitched 5 2/3 innings in a losing effort for the Red Devils, conceding two earned runs on seven hits and one walk.