Eureka Drops Two at Spalding, 14-4, 9-0

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Eureka baseball team ended up on the wrong side of Spalding's perfect run through St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play on Saturday.

The Red Devils fell 14-4 and 9-0 while the Golden Eagles finished league play 16-0 to officially clinch the outright SLIAC regular-season championship.

Game 1: Spalding 14, Eureka 4 (8 inn.)

After a pair of scoreless innings, Eureka struck first with a sac fly RBI by Mike Dunne (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone/Lincoln Land) in the third inning.

The Golden Eagles, however, answered with four runs in the bottom half, and didn't trail the rest of the day.

The home team added another run in the fourth, two in the sixth and seven in the eighth to end it early.

Eureka put their remaining runs on the board with a three-run, two-out rally in the top of the eighth.

With a runner on, Joshua Frenden (New Port Richey, Fla./River Ridge/Philander Smith) drew a walk, and then EC scored on back-to-back RBI singles by Nick Rulevish (Addieville, Ill./Okawville) and Garrett Flaagan (Eagle, Colo./Eagle Valley/Williston State). A pitching change later, Hayden McKenna (Sheridan, Ill./Marquette Academy) singled and another run came home due to a fielding error.

The inning ended with a fly-out to right field, which led to Spalding's big bottom of the seventh.

Nickolas Cartmill (Burleson, Texas/Burleson/Bacone), Rulevish, Flaagan and Gabe Peters (Washington, Ill./Washington/Mount Mercy) each went 2-for-4 in the game. Cartmill had two stolen bases and Peters contributed a double.

Game 2: Spalding 9, Eureka 0

Spalding used four pitchers to hold Eureka scoreless over nine innings. Starter Cameron Rayborn threw five shut-out innings, struck out six batters and allowed five hits and two walks.

Dunne, Eureka's starting pitcher, notched eight strikeouts while allowing six earned runs on 10 hits and five walks in seven innings. After that, Brayden Williams (Chouteau, Okla./Poteau/Bacone) conceded one earned run on three hits and had a pair of strikeouts to finish it out.

Eureka's Sam Buduris (Shorewood, Ill./Minooka/McKendree) went 2-for-4 with a double in the loss.

Up Next

Eureka (18-18, 7-9 SLIAC) will next face Knox (9-22, 4-15 Midwest Conference) on the road in a non-conference doubleheader on Wednesday at 2 p.m. before wrapping up the SLIAC slate and the 2024 regular season on Saturday at Webster (16-15, 8-6).