Eureka Completes Weekend Sweep of Blackburn, 10-8
CARLINVILLE, Ill. – The Eureka baseball team completed a three-game, weekend sweep of St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foe Blackburn on Sunday with a 10-8 win.
After two walk-off victories to open league play on Saturday, the Red Devils faced the Beavers in non-conference action and avoided ending up on the wrong end of a late comeback.
Eureka built a 10-2 lead in the first innings, but the home team got one back in the bottom half and later tallied five runs on four hits to make it a two-run game in the bottom of the ninth.
EC senior Chase Ulrich (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria/Illinois Central College) took the mound with no outs and proceeded to retire the side and get the save. He got back-to-back line-outs and then saw second baseman Gabe Peters (Washington, Ill./Washington Community/Mount Mercy) make a leaping catch to secure the team win.
Hayden McKenna (Sheridan, Ill./Marquette Academy) got the Red Devils off to a strong start at the plate in the first inning when he produced a three-run homer. It was his second dinger of the season and it put EC on the board.
Sam Buduris (Shorewood, Ill./Minooka Community/McKendree) scored an unearned run to make it 4-0 in the third and Garrett Flaagan (Eagle, Colo./Eagle Valley/Williston State) notched an RBI double in the fourth.
After that, Eureka rallied for five runs on five hits in the fifth. Eureka loaded the bases and then scored on the next three at-bats. Joshua Frenden (New Port Richey, Fla./River Ridge/Philander Smith) grounded out to drive in one, and Peters and Cole Tanner (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone/Knox) came up with back-to-back RBI singles.
Two batters later, Nickolas Cartmill (Burleson, Texas/Burleson/Bacone) delivered a two-run triple to make it 10-2 – EC's largest advantage of the day.
Tanner, the Red Devils' leadoff man, went 3-for-5 with a triple and an RBI. McKenna went 2-for-3, complementing his early bomb with a lead-off double to open the five-run fifth inning.
Jackson Green (Terrell, Texas/Terrell/Bacone) recorded the win after allowing one earned run on one hit in the fourth inning after taking over for starter Colton Yanish (LaSalle-Peru, Ill./LaSalle-Peru Township/Illinois Valley). Yanish allowed one run on three hits and struck out two in the first innings.
Ty Kapp (Downs, Ill./Tri-Valley) came on in the fifth and struck out five batters in two innings. He conceded three runs on three hits and two walks before exiting in the seventh.
The win put Eureka over .500 with an 8-7 record through 15 games. The Red Devils (2-0 SLIAC) will next host Fontbonne (7-12, 2-0 SLIAC) in SLIAC play on Tuesday at 12 p.m.