Head baseball coach Dave DeGeorge tied the all-time wins mark for a coach in the Midwest Conference as the Buccaneers split a pair of seven-inning games with Illinois College on a cold, windy Saturday at The Ballpark at Strong Stadium in Beloit.
The Blue Boys took game one 3-1 before the Bucs responded with a 13-6 victory to secure DeGeorge's 444th career win during his tenure at the helm of Beloit's baseball program. The mark ties former St. Norbert head coach Tom Winske.
Bucs' outfielder Jalen Davis also set a career mark Saturday. The senior blasted a triple in the second game of the day to break the program record for career triples with eight.
Statistically the first game was relatively even with IC tallying seven hits to Beloit's six and each team committing two errors but the Blue Boys came up with a timely hit that plated two in the second inning for a lead they would hold on to the rest of the way. Four the Illinois College's seven hits came in that inning as the Blue Boys took a 2-0 lead.
Beloit cut the lead in half in the fifth as Nick Schmidt, Garrison Ferone and Davis registered back-to-back-to-back singles to plate a run.
IC added an insurance run in the seventh for the final.
Davis and James Wicker each went 2-for-3 to lead the Bucs in the batter's box and Danny Belling suffered the loss on the mound striking out five without issuing a walk in 6.1 innings of work.
It took a while on the cold, windy day but the Bucs' bats finally heated up in game two. After IC took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third, Beloit responded to claim the lead in the bottom half of the inning. Ferone reached on a fielder's choice and advanced all the way to third on a Blue Boy miscue in the next at bat. A wild pitch with two outs had Davis moving into scoring position from first. Wicker belted a double to right field that brought in the first two runs and Bronson Balholm followed with a single up the middle to score Wicker to make it 3-2 in favor of Beloit.
Illinois College tied the game in the top of the fourth and then reclaimed the advantage with two runs in the top of the fifth before the Bucs' offense exploded in the bottom of the fifth.
Davis led off the frame taking one for the team and moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. Ethan Conley walked and Wicker followed with a single up the middle for the RBI. Balholm followed suit with an RBI single and Austin De La Cruz loaded the bases with a single through the left side that forced a Blue Boy change on the mound. Drew Freitag singled for an RBI, Matthew Celentano notched a two-RBI double down the right field line and Schmidt singled to plate two more with the help of an error to chase the second IC pitcher of the inning. Ferone tagged a double to center field and Davis connected on his record-breaking triple to score one more. After an out, Wicker singled for the second time in the inning to plate the Bucs' tenth run of the inning and put the game out of reach as Beloit held a 13-5 advantage.
Five Bucs posted multiple hits in the game led by Wicker's 3-for-4 performance. He added two runs scored and four RBI in the game.
Keith Haina picked up the win on the mound to improve to 1-1 on the season.
On Deck: The Bucs will head to Fond du Lac to take on Marian University Tuesday, April 2. The twinbill is slated for a 3 p.m. first pitch.
