MONMOUTH, Ill. - After a nearly 48-hour wait, Beloit's baseball team swept a pair of games from Monmouth on Monday afternoon to earn a three-game sweep of the Fighting Scots. Beloit won the first game 8-4 in a contest that was suspended Saturday due to darkness. They followed that up with a convincing 9-2 win in the third and final game of the series to remain squarely atop the Midwest Conference standings. That marks the Bucs' fourth consecutive win, improving their record to 16-2 since returning home from their Spring Trip in Florida.
The continuation of the first game yielded no runs in the three and a half innings played at Monmouth's home field, ending in the same score, 8-4, as the game stood when it was suspended on Saturday. Beloit's eight runs came on nine hits, including two apiece from
Garrison Ferone and
Evan Zenger, who recorded a pair of doubles.
Deven Irwin added his second home run in as many games, launching a three-run shot to dead center to give Beloit a lead that they would never relinquish. Irwin finished with four RBI in the contest.
Eamon Burke (3-2) earned the win, allowing four runs on six hits while striking out four in six innings of work.
Tommy Murray pitched three innings of scoreless ball in relief, allowing just three hits, to earn his second save of the season.
In the final game of the series that followed, Beloit (20-7, 13-2 MWC) got out to a 6-0 lead, before going home with the 9-2 victory.
Matt O'Leary scored on an error to begin the scoring in the top of the first, which was later followed by an RBI single from Irwin later in the inning. Zenger then added an RBI single in the second, followed by a sac fly from
Connor Vogel and another run scoring when O'Leary crossed the plate on a passed ball.
Monmouth (9-17, 4-10 MWC) finally scored in the fifth, but Beloit got that run back in the seventh when
Tyler Hoover scored on an error to give the Bucs a 7-1 advantage. Monmouth pushed across another run in the seventh, but that wouldn't be enough to overcome Beloit's early lead.
RJ Pouzar then added a couple insurance runs with his first career hit, a two-run single, in the top of the ninth.
The Buccaneers finished with 12 hits, with two apiece coming from Irwin,
Miles Souza, and
Jimmy Yanow.
Kaiya Nishino (4-2) picked up the win, allowing just one run on seven hits and striking out four in six innings of work.
Jack Alport added two scoreless innings of relief to end the game without allowing a hit, extending his scoreless streak to nine innings on the mound this season.
The win secures Beloit's eighth 20-win campaign in program history and leaves the team nine wins shy of breaking the single season school record of 28 (set in 2009), with at least 15 games left to play this year. They will try to keep things rolling at home on Wednesday with a doubleheader against Lawrence University. That twinbill will begin at 1 p.m. at The Ballpark at Strong Stadium in Beloit, Wis.
