Eureka Knocks Off Lyon in Series Finale, 8-4
EUREKA – The Eureka baseball team got back in the winning column with an 8-4 non-conference victory over new St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foe Lyon on Sunday.
The Red Devils led from early on to the very end on a warm, sunny day at Henry Sand Field.
Coming off a pair of slugfests on Saturday, the maroon and gold limited the Fighting Scots to four runs on seven hits in the series finale.
Eureka's Colton Yanish (La Salle, Ill./La Salle-Peru/Illinois Valley) earned his third win of the season with one of his strongest pitching performances so far. He allowed just one earned run on five hits and three walks and struck out seven batters in seven innings pitched.
After that, Nick Rulevish (Addieville, Ill./Okawvile) came in and got the save, striking out three batters while allowing one run on two hits in the last two innings.
The home team got on the board with an unearned run in the second inning, then followed it with three more runs in a rocky second inning for Lyon.
Eureka loaded the bases with a single by Jackson Green (Terrell, Texas/Terrell/Bacone) and a pair of hit batsmen before Joshua Frenden (New Port Richey, Fla./River Ridge/Philander Smith) knocked a two-run single to center field.
A walk loaded the bases for the second time, and a walk for Mike Dunne (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone/Lincoln Land) gave EC a 4-0 advantage.
Lyon got on the board in the fourth with a pair of run in the fourth, but for the first and not the last time of the day, Eureka ended the inning with a throw-out at the plate, with left fielder David Hidden (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria) throwing a bullet to catcher Hayden McKenna (Sheridan, Ill./Marquette Academy) for the out.
In the fifth, Hidden led the inning off with a towering home run off the scoreboard for his first dinger of the season and the second of his career.
Lyon made it a two-run game with an unearned run in the top of the sixth, but Green delivered EC's second straight leadoff homer to make it 6-3. It was his second homer of the season.
When the Fighting Scots threatened again with two on and one out in the eighth, Rulevish notched his second strikeout of the inning. Then, Lyon's Lane Vangennip singled and advanced to second on an error while a run scored, but his teammate Walker Smith got thrown out at the plate by right fielder Sam Buduris (Shorewood, Ill./Minooka/McKendree).
That led to Eureka riding the momentum of the big play into the bottom half and getting two more runs on a pair of hits and a pair of errors in the bottom of the eighth. Rulevish drove in EC's last run at the plate and then returned to the mound in the ninth and retired three of four batters to put the game away.
Eureka finished with nine hits, five of which were extra-base efforts. Hidden and Green provided the leadoff bombs, while Frenden, Dunne and Chase Ulrich (East Peoria, Ill./East Peoria/Illinois Central College) each contributed a double.
Frenden was 3-for-3 on the day. Green went 2-for-3 with a pair of walks and a highlight-worthy overhead catch in foul territory.
Though Eureka committed more errors than normal, the team came up with a slew of key defensive plays that kept the game under control.
The win moved the Red Devils (14-14, 6-6) back to .500 on the season. After six days without competition, they will return to Henry Sand Field on Saturday to open a three-game SLIAC series against Westminster (12-17, 5-5 SLIAC). Game 1 is set for 1 p.m.