CARLINVILLE, IL – Blackburn College Baseball hosted Monmouth College in nonconference action and came away with a split on the day, winning the first game 10-5 but fell in the nightcap 11-4.
Pacing the Beavers throughout the day was senior Isaac Gleaves with three home runs, three runs scored and three runs batted in. Junior Frankie Ruiz finished with two hits, a double, two runs scored and two RBI's. Senior Zach Knox added two runs and two hits along with an RBI while junior Andrew Lozano chipped in with two runs, a home run and an RBI.
Freshman Gehrig Loera contributed two RBI's. Senior Jason Hedges and freshmen Diego Perez and Harley Carney each tallied a run, a hit and an RBI. Sophomore Andrew Garza and sophomore Ian Sullivan both scored a run.
The opener started with Blackburn forcing a 1-2-3 inning before Gleaves belted his second homer of the year to move the Beavers ahead 1-0.
Monmouth responded with two runs in their second inning but BC answered with two runs of their own. Knox singled to open the inning then advanced to third when a Hedges batted ball resulted in an error by the Scots. At the next at bat, Ruiz singled to score Knox and advance Hedges to second. Hedges then got put out on a fielders choice but Ruiz advanced to second and Perez reached first before getting moved up one base on a Lander single. On the next at bat, Loera grounded out but the batted ball allowed Ruiz to score to move Blackburn back ahead 3-2.
The Scots were able to score a run in both the fourth and fifth inning and led 4-3 heading into the bottom of the fifth. Gleaves smashed his second of the game to tie it 4-4. Lozano then reached first on an error and advanced to second on a wild pitch. After an out, Knox singled which allowed Lozano to cross the plate and give BC a 5-4 lead. Hedges hit a single which advanced Knox to second. Monmouth made a pitching change but it did not affect the Beavers as Ruiz immediately doubled to score Knox and moved Hedges to third. Perez followed with his own double, helping Hedges score and put Ruiz on third. The inning continued with a sacrifice bunt from Lander to score Ruiz and moved Perez to third. Loera then hit a ball to left field which allowed Perez to score and gave Blackburn six runs in the inning to take a 9-4 lead.
The guests would score one more run in their sixth inning but Garza scored off a ball hit by Hedges to the hosts 10-5 victory.
The nightcap saw Blackburn facing a 7-0 deficit as they entered the bottom of the fourth inning. Gleaves and Lozano got the Beavers on the board by hitting back-to-back home runs to start the inning. The homer was Gleaves fourth of the season while Lozano belted his second. In the fifth inning, Sullivan walked to give BC a runner then advanced to third after Carney hit a ball to left field that resulted in a Monmouth error. Sullivan soon scored on a wild pitch which made the score 9-3 since the Scots added two more runs in the top of the fifth. In the seventh inning, Carney knocked his first home run this year but it wasn't enough as Blackburn would fall 11-4.
With the split, Blackburn is now 2-3 on the season while Monmouth is 1-1. BC will soon hit the road as they head to Texas for their spring break trip. The trip begins with the team taking on Austin College on Saturday and Sunday.