East Peoria, Ill. - A busy week continued on Thursday afternoon for ICC baseball (21-30, 15-15), as the Cougars battled John Wood in their seventh game in seven days. The doubleheader was certainly not for a lack of drama, as both games would be decided by a mere one run. The opener saw the Blazers take it 8-7 in a back-and-forth affair, while also taking game two (4-3), this time by way of a late offensive charge.
GAME 1 - JOHN WOOD 8, ICC COUGARS 7
ICC got off to a 3-0 lead through the first few innings, although not in the most conventional sense.
Luke Doty scored on a wild pitch.
Josh Heyder scored
Zach Otten on a sacrifice fly. Doty grounded into a fielder's choice that scored
Kaleb Gauf. That set that 3-0 score in what seemed like a bit of a pitcher's duel through the first four innings of play.
From there, however, the offense ramped up. John Wood would start the fireworks with a three-run home run to tie it right back up, and come to find out, it wouldn't be the only long ball of the inning. Heyder sent a homer out of his own to bring home
Beau Durbin and have the lead change hands yet again, this time at 5-3 ICC.
That lead would even swell with
Tyler Bishop (RBI double) and
Camden Porter (RBI single) contributing to the scoreboard and putting ICC ahead by four through five.
The difference in the game was that John Wood was not done with their big offensive innings. The Blazers would capitalize on a pair of errors and a fielder's choice to cut it to just a one-run game.
Bishop came through with another big hit, this time an RBI double to score Gauf and put ICC ahead 7-6 with just a couple innings to go.
John Wood would get a couple RBI singles in the eighth and ninth innings to take the first game by the 8-7 final.
GAME 2 - JOHN WOOD 4, ICC COUGARS 3
The nightcap was just as tight. In fact, game two took on even more of a pitcher's duel vibe than the opener had.
Kaiser Quick started the game quite well, throwing five innings of shutout ball, allowing just three hits and striking out six by the time he'd exit. Taking it a step further, and all three of those runs came on a mere single pitch - a three-RBI double in the sixth.
At that point of the ball game, the Cougars had been slowly chipping away to give Quick some run support, with
Josh Heyder slugging a pair of home runs (14th and 15th of the season) to be responsible for a 2-0 lead at the time.
That aforementioned three-run double eventually would turn into the big hit of the game. It would give the Blazers a 3-2 lead at the time.
John Wood would tack on one more via an RBI single to secure the lead for good.
Zach Otten was able to score
Tyler Bishop on a sacrifice fly to set the 4-3 final score.
WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
Busy becomes busier as the Cougars continue their consecutive days played stretch by wrapping up their MWAC series (and the regular season) with a doubleheader at John Wood on Friday afternoon in Quincy. Game one is set for a 12PM first pitch.
