The Blackburn College Baseball Team hosted the Illinois Tech Scarlet Hawks in a non-conference doubleheader on Sunday afternoon. The Scarlet Hawks hauled their bats with them from Chicago and tallied 27 total runs in two games. They won 11-4 and 16-4.

In game one, Illinois Tech hit five home runs in a park thats not known to be hitter friendly. They hit one in the first and three more in the second to get out to an early 6-0 lead. Senior Vinnie Birk (Swansea, Ill.) singled home a runner in the second to bring it to 6-1. 

Blackburn got their other three runs from a Joey Szerletich (Pleasant Plains, Ill.) sac fly, an Aaron Moody (Navarino, Wis.) triple, and a Matt Mokriakow (Glen Carbon, Ill.) single.

The Scarlet Hawks had fourteen hits in game one, but couldn't score off of relievers Jacob Baalman (Hardin, Ill.) and Marcus Kelly (Astoria, Ill.) who each threw scoreless frames.

The Beavers had ten hits from seven different players including two each from Birk, Mokriakow, and Doug Matas (Youngstown, Ohio).

It was much of the same story in the back half of the doubleheader. Illinois Tech banged out 19 hits and 16 runs including two more big flies. Blackburn, on the flip side, mustered just five hits. Shane Lewis (Middleburg, Flo.) led the way with two hits while Jon Lowry (Peoria Heights, Ill.), Moody, and Drew Williams (Calhoun, Ill.) accounted for the other three. 

Kelly threw 1.1 innings and gave up three runs, yet none of them were earned. The pitching staff had a rough time against the scorhing Scarlet Hawk hitters.

Blackburn will look to get back on track this Wedneday at Westminster with a doubleheader starting at 4:00 PM.