Red Devils Blank Principia, 12-0
ELSAH, Ill. – The Eureka baseball team couldn't have started off its three-game series at Principia much stronger on Friday.
The Red Devils shut out the Panthers 12-0 in seven innings, recording the team's first St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference shutout on the road since March 26, 2008.
It was the team's first road shutout overall since March 20, 2019, when Eureka blanked Monmouth 2-0.
The visitors racked up 18 hits on the evening and only conceded four.
Eureka pitcher Nathan Garard (Gibson City, Ill./Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley) pitched six smooth innings, tallying 11 strikeouts and only allowing four hits and one walk. It was his second time notching double-digit Ks this season and his fourth win of the year.
At the plate, the Red Devils were led by Karter Hostetler (Morton, Ill./Morton), who went 5-for-5 for the first time in his career with a double and an RBI.
Lane Marlow (Camp Point, Ill./Camp Point Central/Roosevelt) came up with two doubles and two RBI. He was one of six EC players to record at least two hits.
Caleb Wilson (Houma, La./Covington Christian) doubled and had two hits, while Austin Davis (Eureka, Ill./Eureka), Jimmy Peterson (Bloomington, Ill./Homeschooled/Monmouth) and Dylan Hill (Steeleville, Ill./Steeleville) each had two base hits.
Nick Rulevish (Addieville, Ill./Okawville) contributed a double, Braden Cox (Washington, Ill./Illini Bluffs/Black Hawk) drove in a team-high three runs, and Garard posted a hit as well.
Cox put Eureka on the board with an RBI single in the first inning, and two batters later, Hostetler and Marlow produced back-to-back RBI doubles to give Eureka a 3-0 lead.
The Red Devils then tacked on one more run in each of the next three innings. Wilson scored an unearned run in the second, Garard plated a run in the third and Cox triggered a run on a sac fly RBI in the fourth.
The maroon and gold came up empty in the fifth, then exploded for six runs on five hits and a Principia error in the sixth.
Eureka's defense didn't commit a single error for the fifth time this season and the first in SLIAC play.
The Red Devils (13-10, 6-4 SLIAC) will wrap up the series with a 12 p.m. doubleheader against the Panthers (2-12, 0-5 SLIAC) on Saturday.