Normal, IL - The Illinois Central College Baseball team (0-10, 0-2) made the short trek down I-74 to battle the fourth-ranked Heartland Hawks (8-6, 2-0) in a doubleheader to start a four-game conference series in the 2025 debut of the MWAC schedule. The Hawks slipped past the Cougars in a low-scoring opener (3-0). ICC held a late lead in the nightcap, but it too would pass in a 7-6 win for Heartland. 

GAME ONE | #4 HEARTLAND 3, ILLINOIS CENTRAL 0
The Cougars struggled to get the bats going early, but eventually broke through in the fourth inning when Ryan Brucker took a double out to left field for the Cougars' first base runner of the game. 

ICC's defense was able to snuff an opportunity in the bottom of the fourth for Heartland, when Thomas Krueger and Blake Norton teamed up for an inning-ending double play and kept the game's margin within reach. Riding that momentum, the Cougars got two on with two outs by way of a Colton Williams walk and a David Ripke line-drive single, before a strikeout ended the threat. 

Caleb Bieneman was on the mound, and teamed up with Blake Norton to be responsible for a 1-2-3 fifth for the Hawks. A Krueger single would follow in the sixth, but that too was snuffed out, keeping it at 1-0. 

A bases-loaded walk gave Heartland a 2-0 advantage before Krueger took a ground ball and stepped on the third base bag to end the inning. 

Chris Casey legged out an infield single off a 1-2 count, and his pinch runner Connor Patton would swipe the second base bag to get into scoring position, but a strikeout kept him out there. 

Heartland was limited to a single in the seventh, but ICC went 1-2-3 in the eighth before the Hawks added a key insurance run by way of a sacrifice fly, scoring a runner that had reached on a double, and giving Heartland the 3-0 lead.

The Cougars put up a fight in the ninth, getting runners on first and second with consecutive singles from Norton and Patton, but the Hawks made the throwdown on a dropped third strike to secure the three-run win. 

Cougar Hitting
Thomas Krueger | 1 single
Ryan Brucker | 1 double
Blake Norton | 1 single
Chris Casey | 1 single
Connor Patton | 1 single, 1 stolen base
Colton Williams | 1 walk
David Ripke | 1 single

Cougar Pitching
Caleb Bieneman (L; 0-2) | 5.2 innings, 2 hits, 1 earned run, 5 walks, 8 strikeouts
Logan Justus (ND) | 2.1 innings, 3 hits, 1 earned run, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts

GAME TWO | #4 HEARTLAND 7, ILLINOIS CENTRAL 6
The second game of the day was quite the roller coaster. ICC hit the scoreboard first on a RBI groundout from Ryan Brucker and Chris Casey scoring on a wild pitch for a 2-0 lead after an inning and a half.

Heartland would draw a pair of hit by pitches and a walk to load the bases in the second, but Kaiser Quick drew a ground ball, to which Jake Stewart covered the bag to end the threat. 

Meanwhile, the Hawks pulled within a run on an RBI single in the third (2-1). Despite that, the Cougars would pull ahead on a big two-run single from Thomas Krueger, scoring Nate Bartman and Aidan Fulton to go ahead 4-1 in the fourth. Another RBI single from Heartland made it a two-run game after four. 

Offenses would go dormant from there. Sure, an occasional base runner or two, both nothing of substance for either side. 

The Cougars nearly blew the doors off in the seventh, using four straight singles, the latest of which, off the bat of Stewart, scored Krueger and Brucker and gave ICC a 6-2 head up on the Hawks. 

A four run lead into the bottom of the seventh may have felt safe, but then it all came crashing down. Walk, single, walk, RBI single - that made it 6-3 Cougars. RBI walk - 6-4. After a strikeout put ICC one out away from the upset, Heartland followed with a two-run single to tie the game at six. 

On a tense 3-1 count, the Hawks got an RBI single to secure the doubleheader sweep with a 7-6 win. 

Cougar Hitting
Aidan Fulton | 1 single, 1 hit by pitch, 1 stolen base
Thomas Krueger | 3 singles, 2 RBI
Ryan Brucker | 2 singles, 1 RBI
Jayden Malone | 1 single
Jake Stewart | 1 single, 2 RBI, 1 hit by pitch
David Ripke | 1 walk, 1 hit by pitch, 1 stolen base
Chris Casey | 1 hit by pitch
Nate Bartman | 1 hit by pitch

Cougar Pitching
Kaiser Quick (ND) | 4.2 innings, 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 4 walks, 5 strikeouts
Billy Mini (Blown Save; 1) | 1.2 innings, 3 hits, 3 earned runs, 2 walks, 1 strikeout
Eli Wang (L; 0-1) | 0.1 innings, 3 hits, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, 1 strikeout

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
vs. #4 Heartland Hawks (8-6, 2-0)
Sunday, March 9th, 2025 - 1:00 PM (DH)
at Thome Field - East Peoria, Illinois
Watch Live (AWRE)
Live Stats (GameChanger; "25 ICC Cougars Baseball")