Westminster Takes Game 1 Against Eureka, 7-3

FULTON, Mo. – Westminster took Game 1 of three-game St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series against Eureka on Friday, winning 7-3.

Eureka's Braden Cox (Washington, Ill./Illini Bluffs/Black Hawk) tied the game with a solo homer run in the top of the sixth inning, but the Blue Jays came back with a pair of home run the bottom half to take a 4-1 lead and homered again and scored two more runs in the seventh to extend the lead to six.

The Red Devils scored two runs in the eighth inning off an RBI groundout by Karter Hostetler (Morton, Ill./Morton) that allowed Caleb Wilson (Houma, La./Covington Christian) and an RBI single to left field by Jimmy Peterson (Bloomington, Ill./Homeschooled/Monmouth). Those ended up being the visitor's last runs of the game.

Westminster pitcher Bode Gebbink limited Eureka to one run on five hits and one in six innings, then handed it off to Corbin Harrison, who conceded two runs on one hit and three walks in three innings.

Hostetler went 2-for-4 for the Red Devils. Cox delivered his sixth homer of the season, while pitcher Mason Diederich (Washington, Ill./Washington) knocked a triple to center field in the third but was left there.

Austin Davis (Eureka, Ill./Eureka) also had a hit for the Red Devils.

Diederich, a senior, allowed three earned runs on 11 hits and just one walk and struck out four batters in his first start of the year for the maroon and gold.

The Blue Jays got three runs on two hits and two walks in the seventh off Trevor Wingard (Decatur, Ill./Meridian. Wingard notched three strikeouts before Sheldon Geuvens (Eureka, Ill./Eureka) took over and pitched a scoreless eighth, only conceding one walk.

Eureka (15-15, 7-8 SLIAC) and Westminster (7-21, 5-10) will square off again on Saturday at 3 p.m.