Cottleville, MO---Chase Ulrich's two-run blast in the top of the 8th inning helped the ICC baseball team to a 13-11 win over DI St. Charles CC in Cottleville, MO on Tuesday night. The sophomore from East Peoria HS hit a 1-0 pitch over the left field fence, scoring both he and
Brody Reed to give ICC the lead and eventually the win. The game was scheduled to be a seven-inning affair but needed extras and the Cougars saved the best for last, scoring four runs in the 7th inning and two in the eighth to get the win.
Max Jones and
Ben Nofsinger added back-to-back jacks in the seventh as ICC tallied a total of 13 hits on the day and took advantage of three SCCC errors to get the win. The Cougars move to 5-6 while St. Charles dropped to 17-7. Game 2 of the scheduled double-header was not played due to impending darkness.
"The guys battled all afternoon and never doubted that we'd win," ICC head coach
Brett Kelley said. "We executed very well offensively and our pitching hung in there, just good enough to win."
The Cougars took advantage of erratic SCCC pitching to get on the board in the first inning.
Coltin Quagliano had a lead-off walk and advanced to third on a passed ball and wild pitch and scored on Jones's sacrifice fly. After Nofsinger singled and
Josh Heyder doubled, they each scored on a passed ball and wild pitch to give ICC a 3-0 lead.
The 4th inning saw the Cougars go up 5-3 as another sacrifice fly from Jones scored a run and and a Quagliano grounder scored Reed, who had walked. But St. Charles plated three runs in the bottom of the 5th to go ahead 8-5. A two-out double in the bottom of the 6th by
Tyler Wessels helped ICC stay close at 8-7, but SCCC added two runs in the bottom of the 6th inning to go up 10-7 before the Cougar bats took over.
Travis Lutz started the game for ICC, allowing two hits and one run over two innings.
Kaleb Gauf was credited with the victory as the righthander allowed four hits and three runs over two innings, striking out three and walking one.
Bryce Brecklin recorded the last three outs to earn the save.
Next up: The Cougars are slated for an M-WAC series with Heartland this weekend, playing Friday, April 1 in a 2pm double-header at Thome Fields and a Saturday (April 2) double-header at the Corn Crib in Bloomington.
ICC box score:
