Rockford Comes Back to Spoil Home Opener
EUREKA, IL. – The Eureka baseball team dropped its home opener 12-8 against Rockford last Sunday.
Rockford broke open the scoring with a double from Alex Perez in the top of the fourth that knocked in Kadin Bergstrom. The Red Devils responded in the bottom of the inning. First, a Sam Buduris (Shorewood, Ill./Minooka Community/McKendree) single brought Cole Tanner (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone/Knox) home and then, Jackson Green (Terrell, Texas/Terrel/Bacone) doubled to drive in Joshua Frenden (New Port Richey, Fla./River Ridge/Philander Smith) and Buduris.
Rockford took a 4-3 lead in the top of the fifth. Nate Burdin opened the inning with a single. When teammate, Blaise Mace, reached first on a Eureka error at shortstop, Burdin advanced to third. Jake Bilotta then singled to bring Burdin home and put runners on first and third with no outs. Mace then took home on a wild pitch and Bilotta advanced to second. Bilotta later scored on a Jared Herzog single before the Red Devils were able to close out the inning by catching Herzog stealing.
It was three up, three down for Rockford in the sixth, as Mike Dunne (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone/Lincoln Land) struck out the first two batters (his fourth and fifth of the game) and the third grounded out to shortstop, Nick Rulevish (Addieville, Ill./Okawville). In the bottom of the inning, Eureka took an 8-4 lead with Rulevish, Ulrich, Buduris, McKen, and Gree all crossing the plate. It was Buduris that got the scoring started by driving home Rulevish with a double.
Rockford scored one run in each of the next two innings to head into the top of the ninth down 8-6. And, in the ninth, the Regents rallied to score six runs on 3 hits and 1 error, going up 12-8. Eureka couldn't get the bats going again in the bottom of the ninth, leaving Chase Ulrich (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria/Illinois Central College) and Sam Buduris stranded on first and second.
Mike Dunne started on the mound for the Red Devils and pitched six innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits and one walk and striking out five batters. Brayden Williams (Chouteau, Okla./Poteau/Bacone) faced 15 batters in relief, allowing four runs and five hits. Ty Kapp (Down, Ill./Tri-Valley) faced four batters in the ninth inning before Colton Yanish (LaSalle-Peru, Ill./LaSalle-Peru Township/Illinois Valley) was brought in to close the inning, getting Rockford's Wilhite to fly out and Stagowski to strike out swinging.
It was a good day at the plate for Eureka's Sam Buduris, who went 3-for-5 with a double, two runs, and two RBIs. Designated hitter, Jackson Green, also went 2-for-5 with a double and 3 RBIs.
Eureka takes on Maranatha Baptist at home on Monday at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m CST.