Champaign, Ill. - Sunday afternoons and baseball. Not too many things make quite the quality pair. ICC baseball (14-24, 8-12) would make the trip down I-74 to complete their MWAC series against rival Parkland in Champaign. A high-scoring affair saw the Cobras and Cougars combine for 19 runs in a 14-5 Parkland winner, while the second game saw a late surge by ICC to secure an 8-7 win.
GAME 1 - PARKLAND 14, ICC COUGARS 5
The bats for both teams in game one were, shall one say, good. In fact, among the aforementioned 19 combined runs, 13 would cross home plate within the game's first three innings.
Josh Heyder and
Jackson Powell got the scoring going with a bases-loaded walk and sacrifice fly, respectively. Then, RBI singles from
Luke Doty and
Beau Durbin would give the Cougars a 4-2 lead over the hosts.
Now, Parkland would go 9-0 over the next few innings, but ICC's offense wasn't silenced just yet. The Cougars continued to capitalize on their bases-loaded situations when
Tyler Bishop was hit by a pitch to make it a 13-5 game. Parkland would answer and set the game's final score with a solo home run in the bottom half.
Zach Otten and Durbin both had two-hit games at the plate.
Carson Johnson (3),
Kaiden Rixner (3), and
Beau Beeney (1) combined for a seven-strikeout effort by the pitching staff.
GAME 2 - ICC COUGARS 8, PARKLAND 7
What the second game ultimately 'lacked' in scoring, it gained back in late drama. The Cougars jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first on the strength of a
Jackson Powell sacrifice fly,
Tyler Hansen RBI single, and
Griffin Roesch RBI single.
From there, a pitchers duel of sorts would ensure. Granted, Parkland had two run-scoring innings of two and four to be exact, but outside of those two frames, no runs were to be found.
With Parkland holding a 6-3 lead into the eighth, it left ICC with limited options to complete the comeback. What came next was the Cougars' biggest offensive output of the day, pouring on four runs in the top half. A
Luke Doty RBI single,
Beau Durbin RBI single,
Josh Heyder sacrifice fly, and
Jackson Powell RBI single turned a three-run deficit into one-run lead at 7-6.
Alas, come to find out, that would not be enough to win the ballgame. Parkland would add on to tie it at 7-7 after eight innings.
The ninth did not start optimally, but it's certainly not how one starts. Facing two outs off of the first two plate appearances, odds were, however, not in the Cougars' favor.
Zach Otten would draw a walk, then proceed to advance into scoring position on a passed ball. That was followed by the big play of the day, Doty sending an RBI single into center field and giving ICC an 8-7 lead into the bottom of the ninth, a lead they'd hold on to.
Otten, Doty, Dubrin, and Heyder would all lead the push with two-hit games. Powell drew two of ICC's five walks.
Gavin Thompson got the win on the bump after coming on in relief.
The win continued a run of nearly dead-even baseball between these two rivals, with Parkland holding a slim (5-4) edge over the past two years.
WHAT'S NEXT
The Cougars will go from heading east to heading west, when they head up and over to Iowa to take on Southeastern Iowa in a midweek doubleheader in West Burlington. Game one is scheduled for a 12PM first pitch.
