Normal, Ill. - Josh Heyder's stellar showing at the plate and Jake Jacek's bulldog effort on the mound boosted the #6 seeded Illinois Central College baseball team to a 12-10 win over #3 seeded Lincoln Land in the Region 24 Tournament at the Corn Crib on Wednesday afternoon. Heyder doubled in the first, had a two-run homer in the second, a solo homer in the fifth, a single in the sixth, and blasted the game-winning solo homer in the top of the ninth to have a 5-5 day at the plate. Meanwhile, Jacek put the clamps on the Logger offense (who scored all of their ten runs in the first three innings) to pitch six scoreless innings and help advance the Cougars to Thursday's 1pm game vs. #2 seed Parkland. It is the first time since 2016 that ICC has won their first round game at the Region 24 Tournament.
"We really had great focus today up and down the lineup," coach Brett Kelley said. "Heyder had a monster day at the plate and was crushing everything he saw. I thought everybody else played really well to get some things going and help us win. And then Jacek really picked it up for the pitching staff. We got on him after the fourth inning about giving up free bases but then he really shut them down with a lot of zeros."
ICC got off to a rocky start as the Loggers scored seven runs in the bottom of the first to go up 7-0. However, the Cougars got right back in the game in the second inning as Kaleb Gauf and Tyler Bishop led off with singles followed by a Cam Porter RBI double. Matt Evans was hit by a pitch to load the bases and an LLCC error on a Luke Doty grounder plated two more runs. Beau Durbin had a sacrifice fly for an RBI and then Heyder hit his first homer to score he and Doty to make the score 7-6.
The Loggers took a 10-6 lead on a three-run homer in the bottom of the third but that was all the offense they would muster for the rest of the game, leaving the door open for the Cougars. Heyder led off the fifth with a solo homer and Gauf stretched a single into a double on an error and scored on a Bishop RBI double. Evans singled and then Zach Otten doubled on a 3-1 count, scoring two runs to tie the score at 10-all.
Jacek bore down on the mound and was backed up by a strong defense, namely Porter who made solid plays at shortstop and Otten in center who made a diving catch on a fly ball in the bottom of the sixth to end the inning.
Heyder came through once again in the top of the ninth with his third homer of the game to give the Cougars an 11-10 lead. Jackson Powell followed Heder's heroics on the next at-bat with a solo shot of his own putting ICC up 12-10.
In the bottom of the ninth Otten had a great catch with a runner on first and no outs to help thwart a potential Logger rally. Jacek got a strikeout for the second out and Otten caught a routine fly ball for the final out.
WEDNESDAY SCORES
#5 Lewis & Clark 7, #4 John Wood 5
#6 ICC COUGARS 12, #3 Lincoln Land 10
#2 Parkland 10, #7 Vincennes 4
THURSDAY SCHEDULE
10:00 AM | #1 Heartland vs. #5 Lewis & Clark
1:00 PM | #2 Parkland vs. #6 ICC COUGARS
4:00 PM | #3 Lincoln Land vs. Heartland/L&C Loser
7:00 PM | #4 John Wood vs. ICC/Parkland Loser
