East Peoria, Ill. - A week to the day from a matchup behind enemy lines, the Illinois Central College baseball team (10-15, 6-2) went to battle with the Lake Land Lakers within the friendly confines of Thome Field on Tuesday afternoon. The Cougars maintained a tied game as late as the sixth inning, but a late charge made by the visiting Lakers flipped the game around and sent them home with a 12-5 victory over ICC to complete the season sweep (2-0). 

LAKE LAND 12, ICC COUGARS 5
The Cougars got off to a solid start. See, the Lakers had gotten each of their first three batters to reach, thus loading the bases with nobody out. The solid part? Gage Burdick nearly struck out every other batter in the inning to keep the score at zero (two strikeouts, one two-pitch lineout) and leave the bases stranded loaded. 

Momentum that had been given to ICC by way of Burdick's three straight retired became a good payoff. Luke Doty drew a leadoff walk, as did Bryce Bishop. That put a runner in scoring position for Kyle Mack, who after taking just one pitch for a strike, would promptly line one up the middle to score Doty and move Bryce Bishop to third. Noah Campbell would follow two plate appearances later with an RBI sacrifice fly to bring him in and make it 2-0 ICC after one. 

Slowly but surely, Lake Land would find their collective way back into the game. A sacrifice fly of their own made it a one-run game. After a hit by pitch led off their top of the third inning, that and a double both came around to score on an RBI single and give the Lakers a 3-2 lead. Run-scoring in the format of another sac fly plus a single expanded the lead to 5-2. 

After having been held scoreless the previous frame, the ICC bats were back in rhythm. A leadoff baserunner came when Mack reached on an error after fighting off a six-pitch at bat. Tyler Bishop walked - another runner in scoring position. This time, with Campbell back at the plate, he'd hustle down and reach on a dropped third strike by the Laker catcher, and Mack also scored on an error by the catcher to get back within 5-3. After Lake Land went another direction on the mound, Jacob Castleman greeted the new arm with an RBI double up the middle to make it a one-run game. A few outs ended the inning, but the Cougars weren't done. 

With Brody Palmer now on the mound for the Cougars, the Lakers were being held silent for the most part, outside of the occasional baserunner. His defense was helping him out, too. Campbell, Nick Piazza, and Tyler Bishop teamed up in that order to turn a double play in the fourth inning. That was just the start of a miniature pitcher's duel, as Lake Land didn't score from the fourth-sixth innings, and neither did the Cougars for the fourth and fifth frames. 

The breakthrough came in the bottom of the sixth. After, you guessed it, Doty reached on the inning's first plate appearance, he'd come around to score by way of a Tyler Bishop RBI single to tie the game up at five runs apiece. 

That, however, would be it for the offense. It would also be far from 'it' for the Lakers. A fielder's choice, RBI walk, and RBI hit by pitch put the opposition up 8-5 through seven innings. After ICC had gone 1-2-3 in the bottom half of the seventh, the Lakers kept going, adding an error, RBI single, stolen base, and a final error to take it from a tied game after six to a seven-run final score. 

The Cougars will now be off from games for just over a week. 

HITTING STATS
Luke Doty (CF) | 1 single, 1 walk, 2 stolen bases
Bryce Bishop (RF) | 1 single, 1 walk
Kyle Mack (DH) | 1 single, 1 RBI
Tyler Bishop (1B) | 1 single, 1 RBI, 1 walk
Noah Campbell (SS) | 1 single, 1 RBI
Jacob Castleman (3B) | 1 double, 1 RBI, 1 walk, 1 stolen base
Kannon Kleine (C) | 1 walk
Riley McCallister (LF) | 2 walks

PITCHING STATS
Gage Burdick | 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 2 SO
Aidan Leemans | 1 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO
Brody Palmer | 4 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO
Billy Mini | 1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO
Ian McGhiey | 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
@ D1 #8 John A. Logan Volunteers (24-2)
Wednesday, March 27th - 1:00 PM & 4:00 PM
Volunteer Field - Carterville, Illinois
Live Stats (GameChanger)