Fontbonne's Late Rallies Too Much for EC

EUREKA — The Eureka baseball team put itself in position to claim a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series win over Fontbonne on Sunday.

Instead, the Griffins put together a pair of late rallies and earned a 14-7 victory over the Red Devils at Henry Sand Field.

The Red Devils (7-12, 3-6 SLIAC) held a 4-3 lead after four innings and a 5-4 lead after six.  But in the eighth, the Griffins (16-7, 3-4) plated four runs on three hits, three walks and a catcher's interference error to take an 8-5 advantage. EC trimmed the lead to one in the bottom half, but Fontbonne put the game out of reach with a six-run ninth.

By the time it was over, the Griffins had outhit the Red Devils 14-8.

EC's Sean Green (Peoria, Ill./Limestone) went 3-for-4 with a double, four stolen bases and three runs scored in a losing effort. Mike Redmond (Chicago, Ill./St. Rita) went 2-for-4 with a walk and an RBI. Drew Thoele (Teutopolis, Ill./Teutopolis) had one hit and drove in two runs, while Jeremy Sinople (Oak Lawn, Ill./St. Rita) and Kyle Finke (Argenta, Ill./Argenta-Oreana) each had a hit and one RBI.

EC did the majority of its damage with a four-run fourth inning.

After Joe Quinn (Coal City, Ill./Coal City) reached on an error, Finke drove him in, and a Noah Harlan (Knoxville, Ill./Knoxville) sac bunt later, Sinople's RBI groundout scored another. Green and Redmond then walked, Thoele legged out an RBI infield single and Green stole home on a failed pickoff and rundown.

Redmond drove in the go-ahead run in the sixth to make it 5-4. The team's eighth-inning runs came when Thoele was beaned with the bases loaded, and when an infield fly by Quinn was dropped with bases still juiced.

EC starting pitcher Brock Pettit (Ashland, Ill./A-C Central) took a no-decision after giving up four runs on six hits and striking out five in seven innings. Quinn, who took over and surrendered the lead in the eighth, took the loss.Fontbonne reliever Tyler Heitmann recorded his first win of the year for the Griffins.

Four Fontbonne players had multi-hit games.Gus Purschke had three hits, including two doubles. Jonathan Hoevelmann and Michael Puckett Jr. both homered in the ninth inning. While's Puckett's was a leadoff solo shot, Hoevelmann's was a grand slam that put the game all but out of reach.

The Red Devils will next host Edgewood in a non-conference doubleheader on Wednesday at 1 p.m.