Red Devils Best Blackburn by Run Rule, 11-1

EUREKA – Parker Brodine (Brimfield, Ill./Elmwood-Brimfield) and the Eureka baseball team ended the rubber game against Blackburn early on Monday afternoon, topping the Beavers 11-1 in the seventh inning by run-rule.

Brodine, a junior right-handed pitcher, held the visitors to one run on seven hits and two walks while notching a career-high seven strikeouts and improving to 2-0 on the season. He successfully lowered his ERA to 2.35 on the season.

The win moved the Red Devils to 9-7 on the season and to 2-1 in SLIAC play.

It was the Red Devils' first rule-rule against a SLIAC opponent victory of the season. The team's last win by run rule came in a 12-2 triumph at Blackburn last season on May 5, 2021.

Eureka scored 11 runs on 10 hits, with Caleb Wilson (Houma, La./Covington Christian), Jimmy Peterson (Bloomington, Ill./Homeschooled/Monmouth), Karter Hostetler (Morton, Ill./Morton) and Dylan Hill (Steeleville, Ill./Steeleville) each contributing a pair.

Hill and Hostetler both went yard. Wilson knocked a two-run triple in the seventh inning that clinched the win in the seventh, while Peterson poked a double that set up the Red Devils' second run of the game.

Hill was a key producer for the Red Devils early. First, he hammered a solo shot to center field in the second inning to put the team on the board in the second. Then, in the fourth, he drove home Peterson with a single to make it 2-0.

Monday's game was a pitchers' duel early on, but that changed in the last three innings.

Eureka scored two in the fifth, with Austin Davis (Eureka, Ill./Eureka) singling to drive in one run and Cox delivering a sac fly RBI on a controversial play that ended in a double play.

The maroon and gold came back with three more off a pair of hits and two errors in the sixth. Hostetler homered down the left-field line to start it off. Later, Wilson singled with two on to bring in another run and Mason Diederich (Washington, Ill./Washington) scored on a dropped fly ball.

Blackburn got one back in the top of the seventh inning and loaded the bases, but Brodine and the Red Devils got a pop up and a groundout to get out of it.

Finally, the Red Devils teed off for three runs on four hits in the seventh to end it. Marlow drove in a run with a single. Diederich scored Hostetlter on a sac fly RBI before Wilson's speedy two-run triple ended it.

Eureka (9-7, 2-1 SLIAC) will next head to Greenville on Friday to open a three-game SLIAC series against the Panthers (8-8) at 4 p.m.