Eureka Completes Road Sweep at Blackburn
CARLINVILLE, Ill. – The Eureka baseball team completed a three-game St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference sweep of Blackburn on Sunday.
The Red Devils took down the home team 11-2 in the first game of the day and followed it with an 8-3 victory to seal it.
It was the maroon and gold's second three-game conference sweep of the season and its first on the road.
Game 1: Eureka 11, Blackburn 3
Eureka's Chase Ulrich (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria/Illinois Central College) went 4-for-5 with two doubles and four RBI to lead the Red Devils at the plate, and Mike Dunne (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone/Lincoln Land) was dominant on the mound in Eureka's first win of the day.
Dunne, a sophomore transfer southpaw from Lincoln Land Community College, struck out nine batters and allowed just one earned run on three hits and zero walks in nine innings pitched.
The Red Devils tallied a series-high 16 hits during a weekend in which the team averaged 15 per game and posted its most RBI in a game (11) since March 26, when the team racked up 16 in a 19-4 drubbing of Principia.
Nick Rulevish (Addieville, Ill./Okawville) and Nathan Garard (Gibson City, Ill./Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley) both had two hits, scored two runs and had an RBI. Garard, the team's right-handed No. 1 pitcher who opened the series with a complete-game victory on the mound on Saturday, recorded a double at the plate.
Ten Red Devils had at least one hit in the win.
Ulrich put the visitors on the board with an RBI double in the second inning. The Beavers notched an unearned run in the fourth and an earned run in the fifth to take the lead, but Eureka regained it with a three-run sixth inning and never looked back.
EC capitalized off a pair of Blackburn errors. Cole Tanner (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone/Knox) singled and a throwing error allowed the tying run to score. Two batters later, a fielding error allowed Karter Hostetler (Morton, Ill./Morton) to reach and Tanner to score. Ulrich followed it with an RBI single that scored Garard to make it 4-2.
Brenden Eigenbrod then added a fifth run on an RBI in single in the seventh, Braden Cox (Washington, Ill./Illini Bluffs/Black Hawk) doubled to drive in a sixth in the eighth, and EC put the game away with a five-run ninth that featured five hits and another costly error.
Game 2: Eureka 8, Blackburn 3
Eureka's Ryan Bredeson (Washington, Ill./Washington) delivered the maroon and gold's third straight complete-game victory on the mound. He limited the Beavers to three runs on 10 hits and no walks while striking out eight batters.
The Red Devils kept the bats going, putting up eight runs on 14 hits.
The team scored at least one run in five out of nine innings, opening with two in the second off RBI singles by Garrett Flaagan (Eagle, Ill./Eagle Valley/Williston State) and David Hidden (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria in the second inning and closing with three in the eighth.
In between, Dominic Tenayuca (Lake in the Hills, Ill./Jacobs/Lincoln) plated a run with an RBI single in the third, Hostetler doubled to drive in another in the fourth, Tanner doubled to left to make it a two-run game in the sixth.
Eigenbrod came up with an RBI single in the eighth to round it out.
Rulevish went 3-for-3, scored three times and drew a pair of walks. Hostetler and Ulrich both had a pair of hits. Hostetler and Tanner claimed the team's only extra-base hits.
Eureka had 10 players record at least one for the second game in a row, while eight recorded an RBI.
Up Next
Eureka (9-21) will travel to Augustana (26-6) for a non-conference contest on Tuesday at 6 p.m.