The Buccaneer baseball team leads the nation in slugging percentage and it showed in a pair of wins over Knox College Sunday afternoon in Beloit. After combining for 61 runs in yesterday's twinbill in Galesburg, the squads posted a total of 44 runs in the doubleheader in Beloit Sunday as the Bucs took game one 19-5 and the nightcap 19-1, both seven-inning games due to run-rule.
Beloit showcased their power at the plate once again with 12 extra base knocks, a Beloit College record, in the first game including five homerun blasts, a mark that ties the program record for four-baggers in a single game. Records continued to fall as
Bronson Balholm surpassed the triples mark with his fifth of the season and
Matt O'Leary broke the season homerun record with his eighth.
The Bucs scored in every inning of the opener but an offensive explosion in the fourth blew the game wide open.
Drew Freitag was the catalyst opening the frame with a double to left field. Following a flyout,
Nick Schmidt took one for the team and an error on a potential double play ball had the bases juiced, but only for a short period of time.
James Wicker brought in three tagging a triple to right center. An oddity in the next at bat had many confused both on and off the field.
Garrison Ferone looked to swing but the ball audibly hit something and caromed to the backstop. Ferone took off for first and Wicker came home but after a meeting between the umpires, they determined Ferone was out on the swing and the ball had actually hit him causing a deadball and putting Wicker back at third. Beloit rallied after the play as O'Leary was hit-by-pitch and
Brett Kiger cleared the bases crushing a homer to left field.
Deven Irwin kept the inning going with a double to left center. A Prairie Fire miscue in the outfield put Freitag on and allowed Irwin to score and
Matt Crandall capitalized with a homerun blast to left field to put Beloit ahead 14-5.
The Bucs cruised the rest of the way for the 19-5 final. Six Beloit hitters registered two hits in the game.
Zachary Miller picked up his first in on the season pitching 4.1 innings of relief striking out three while allowing just two hits and a single earned run.
True to form for the series, and the season, nearly half of Beloit's 12 hits in the nightcap went for extra bases including another Crandall four-bagger. Knox got on the board first with a single run in the top of the first but Beloit responded with a huge 11-run second to take all of the momentum.
The Bucs added to an already hefty cushion with three runs in the third, a single run in the fourth and a four spot in the fifth.
Kiger was a perfect 3-3 to lead the Buc offense adding two runs scored and two runs batted in. Ferone found some green in his final at bat of the day to extend his hit streak to 28 games dating back to last season.
Four Buc hurlers took to the mound in game two with Freitag securing his second victory of the season in 4.1 innings of relief. He struck out two and allowed just two hits while shutting out the Knox offense.
Beloit, solely on top of the league standings with a 12-2 mark, returns to Midwest Conference North Division action May 8-9 with a road-home series against Lawrence.
