GALESBURG, IL. - Yesterday afternoon the Beloit College Baseball team extended their win streak to five and moved to 8-2 in Midwest Conference play with a convincing sweep of the Knox College Prairie Fire. The Buccaneers (15-6, 8-2 MWC) scored 24 runs in two games, outscoring the Prairie Fire (5-12, 0-5 MWC) by 13 runs.
Over the first three innings of game one, Beloit jumped out to a 9-0 lead before Knox plated their first run in the bottom of the third inning. Back to back singles to lead off the game from
Jack Alport (Arlington Heights, Ill.) and
Matt O'Leary (Clarendon Hills, Ill.) jump started the day for the Bucs.
Connor Vogel (Palmdale, Calif.) doubled in the first run before
Evan Zenger (Burr Ridge, Ill.) and
Miles Souza (Carpinteria, Calif.) singled in runs two and three. In the top of the second,
Drew Hanson (Edgerton, Wis.) and
Ryan Kopp (Pinole, Calif.) drew back to back walks. Alport got in on the RBI action, doubling to bring Hanson home. O'Leary hit a ground out to the short stop but Kopp came home for Beloit's fifth run of the game.
The Bucs' utilized the free bases as much as possible, to lead off the third inning, they drew two walks and a hit by pitch to load the bases. A passed ball advanced everyone and scored
Blake Nelson (Monument, CO.) from third. O'Leary drew the Bucs' third walk of the inning to load the bases full of Bucs again. Vogel and
Brett Kiger (Beloit, Wis.) hit singles back to back to score runs 7, 8 and 9. The Prairie Fire pushed their first run across in the bottom of the third on a fielder's choice. Knox continued to cut into the lead in the bottom of the fourth, scoring two more and making it a 9-3 game.
O'Leary led off the top of the fifth inning with a single and stolen base. Kiger doubled to score O'Leary and give Beloit a seven run cushion. Knox scored their final two runs in the bottom of the fifth. After five the Buccaneers led 10-5.
Beloit pushed their final three runs across in the top of the sixth and coasted the rest of the way to a 13-5 win in game one.
Kaiya Nishino (Seattle, Wash.) and
Tommy Murray (Rockton, Ill.) combined for the nine innings on the mound. Nishino went 5.0 innings, striking out four and walking only one. Nishino moves to 3-0 on the year. Murray came in in relief over the final four innings. He struck out one while giving up only three hits and collecting his second save of the season.
The offense didn't stop in game two for the Bucs. They jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the top half of the first. O'Leary came around to score on an RBI single from Zenger. By the middle of the fourth, they had extended their lead to four, pushing three more runs across.
Jacopo "JT" Tamburini (Bologna, Italy) led off the inning with a single to right and moved over to third on a single from
Nolan Tomsyck (Muskego, Wis). Alport and O'Leary reached on back to back errors by the third basemen that scored Tamburini and loaded the bases. Vogel followed with a bases loaded double that drove in two more runs.
It wasn't until the bottom of the fifth that Knox scored their first run and after a productive bottom of the sixth, the Bucs found themselves trailing 6-4, for the first time this series. Kiger closed the game by one in the top of the seventh with a solo home run. In the top of the eighth, Beloit used small ball to reagin the lead.
Brody Bremer came home to score on a passed ball. After a walk, hit by pitch and fielder's choice, Kiger singled in
RJ Pouzar from third to put the Bucs up by one, 7-6.
In the top of the ninth, Beloit added three insurance runs to secure the game two win. Souza and Tamburini led off the inning with singles and both came in to score on a double by
Tyler White (Cedarburg, Wis.). Beloit's eleventh run came via the long ball when Alport launched his first of the season.
Beloit is back in action this afternoon at The Ballpark at Strong Stadium when they host Knox to close out the series. First pitch is set for 3 pm.
