Greenville Edges Red Devils After Lopsided Opener
EUREKA – After a lopsided first game on Friday, the Eureka baseball team fell just short against Greenville in a 7-6 Game 2.
The Red Devils had a three-run lead after five innings, but the Panthers scored four runs to go ahead in the sixth and added an insurance run in the seventh. The Red Devils got one back with an unearned run in the eighth inning, and that ended up being the last score of the game.
Eureka's Cole Tanner (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone/Knox) put the Red Devils on the board in the first inning with his second homer of the day – a two-run shot to left-center.
The Panthers came back and manufactured a run in the second to make it 2-1 in the second. Two innings later, Eureka's Karter Hostetler (Morton, Ill./Morton) produced a solo home run – his first of the season – to extend the lead to two runs.
Greenville's George Schneider homered to left to start the fifth inning, briefly making it 3-2. The Red Devils answered in the bottom half, scoring two on three hits, with Nick Rulevish's (Addieville, Ill./Okawville) two-run single through the left side giving the home team a three-run advantage.
In the top of the sixth, the Panthers erased it and went ahead, scoring four runs on four hits. Drew Frey had a sac fly RBI and Landon Mokris launched a three-run homer to left. The visitors nabbed their seventh and final run off three hits and an error in the top of the seventh – and ended up needing it to hold off the Red Devils.
Leadoff hitter David Hidden (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria) contributed a pair of doubles and scored two runs for the maroon and gold. Chase Ulrich (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria/Illinois Central College) and Brandt King (Stillman Valley, Ill./Stillman Valley) each had a single to go with Tanner and Hostetler's long balls and Rulevish's two-run single.
Nathan Garard (Gibson City, Ill./Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley) took the loss despite getting the team out of couple of jams and limiting the damage he could for the first half of the game. He allowed six runs on 10 hits and three walks and had three strikeouts in six innings pitched.
Ryan Bredeson (Washington, Ill./Washington) took over in the seventh and conceded just one unearned run on four hits and one walk in the last three innings.
Game 1: Greenville 16, Eureka 3 (7 inn.)
The first game of the day got away in a hurry. After going down in order in the first inning, the Panthers got cooking in the second with a six-run rally in the second and followed it with six more in the third.
After a pitching change, the Panthers kept it going with a four-run fifth.
Ulrich finally led the bottom of the fifth off with a single and scored on an RBI fielder's choice by Hidden a few batters later. Tanner homered to left-center for the first time of the day and the season in the sixth. Hidden knocked an RBI single up the middle in the seventh.
Greenville starting pitcher Luke Fleener notched 10 strikeouts and only allowed three runs on five hits and two walks in seven innings.
Up Next
The Red Devils (6-19, 4-10 SLIAC) will look to finish the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series against the Panthers (13-14, 7-4 SLIAC) strong on Saturday with another home game at Henry Sand Field at 1 p.m.
