Normal, Ill. - It was an early riser of a day for ICC baseball (13-21, 7-9), as the Cougars made the short drive down Interstate 74 to wrap their MWAC series with #2 Heartland on Saturday at the Corn Crib. ICC tried to chip away at an early deficit in game one before falling 6-2. The finale of the day saw the Cougars take an early 2-1 lead before the Hawks responded with a big run to secure a 15-3 win.
GAME 1 - #2 HEARTLAND 6, ICC COUGARS 2
The 9AM start didn't phase the ICC bats, who got right to work on a
Zach Otten double and
Luke Doty single to lead off the game, putting runners on the corners before an out was recorded. The Cougars would then hit into a double play, but the Hawks would prioritize the turning of the double play over the run scoring, bringing Otten home and giving ICC the early 1-0 lead. From there, Heartland scored five unanswered runs between the second and fifth innings.
The Cougars weren't done just yet. Another inning of back-to-back hits started the sixth.
Beau Durbin would double and
Josh Heyder would single, putting two runners in scoring position with nobody out. Interestingly enough, it would be another double play grounded into, yet again resulting in an ICC run, scoring Durbin and scoring ICC's final run of the first game.
By game's end, the Cougars had spread the wealth offensively, with their six hits spread among six players. By way of the aforementioned double plays, no RBI were recorded.
Carson Johnson was the pitcher of record in game one, going five innings and striking out seven.
GAME 2 - #2 HEARTLAND 15, ICC COUGARS 3
Just like the first game, the Cougars wasted no time getting on the scoreboard.
Luke Doty singled and
Beau Durbin drew a walk on consecutive plate appearances. That was followed by an RBI double from
Josh Heyder, who's the holder of a team-high .630 slugging percentage thus far.
Tyler Hansen would follow that right up with an RBI groundout to put ICC ahead 2-0 after half an inning.
Jake Jacek held the Hawks to just one run in the bottom half, preserving the Cougar lead.
Similar to the opener, Heartland would go on a run, scoring 14 of their 15 runs between the second and fourth innings. This go-around, however, the Cougars were able to tack on one more run in the form of an RBI single from Durbin to pull within a grand slam run range of 7-3. The remainder of the Hawks run of 8-0 would set the final score.
Yet again, the Cougars perfectly split their offensive output among five players.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
ICC will have nearly a full week away from games before resuming MWAC play by welcoming conference rival Parkland to Thome Field next Saturday.
