Danville, IL - The Illinois Central College Baseball team (11-29, 6-14) made the long trek eastward on Interstate 74 to Danville Stadium for the final two games of their MWAC series with the Danville Area Jaguars on Sunday afternoon. Offense was quite prevalent for both squads for the duration of the day. In the first game, the Jaguars roared out to an early lead, and a late Cougar push was not enough in a 14-6 Danville win. When it came to the final game of the series, the Cougars were on the board first, and led as late as the middle of the fifth inning, but the lead would slip away and the Jaguars would take the second game of the twinbill as well, 10-6.
GAME ONE | DANVILLE AREA 14, ILLINOIS CENTRAL 6
This one got off to quite the quick start, unfortunately though, not in favor of the Cougars. Trailing 9-0 after three, ICC wouldn't go down without a fight.
In fact, the Cougars would ultimately outscore the Jaguars 6-5 the rest of the way. It's just that the gap at the game's start was too much to come back from.
In the top of the fourth, after
Thomas Krueger reaching on an error,
Ryan Brucker singling, and
Chris Casey drawing a walk all collectively loading the bases, an RBI walk drawn on the next plate appearance by
Kyle Binder would get ICC on the board. However, a big five-run bottom half followed for the hosts, as they would continue to pull away.
The Cougars, though, continued to score. In the top of the fifth, a big response saw a Krueger RBI single, Brucker RBI single, Malone RBI single, and Brucker scoring on a throw during Malone's RBI cut it down to single digits after four and a half at 14-5.
ICC was able to push across one more run courtesy of another Krueger RBI, this time a double, and setting the final score.
COUGAR HITTING
Kaiden Lucero | 3 singles
Thomas Krueger | 1 single, 1 double, 2 RBI
Ryan Brucker | 2 singles, 1 RBI
Jayden Malone | 2 singles, 2 RBI
Chris Casey | 1 single, 1 walk
Kyle Binder | 1 single, 1 RBI, 1 walk
Jake Stewart | 1 single
COUGAR PITCHING
Blake Norton (L) | 1.1 innings, 5 hits, 7 earned runs, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts
Wyatt Jacek | 4.2 innings, 4 hits, 4 earned runs, 6 walks, 1 strikeout
GAME TWO | DANVILLE AREA 10, ILLINOIS CENTRAL 6
The Cougars would race out to an early 4-0 lead, thanks to a single from
Ryan Brucker, allowing
Kaiden Lucero to score on a throw. Then
Jake Stewart added an RBI single, soon added on to by an
Elliot Seckman RBI single, which also had
Chris Casey scoring on the throw, all before the top of the first could come to an end.
Danville Area nearly made it all up in one sweep, storming back to within a 4-3 margin in the third, before the Cougars answered back with an RBI fielder's choice by Brucker to score Lucero and get it back to a multi-run game at 5-3 ICC after three and a half.
A big four-run bottom of the fifth from the Jaguars, however, allowed them to come back and take a two-run lead after five innings (7-5). It wasn't known at the time, of course, but the Cougars would be unable to make this lead up. The Jaguars would lead by as much as 9-5 in the sixth.
Casey did his best to bring the Cougars back in the game, getting a solo home run in the top of the seventh to bring it to a three-run deficit, but that would be ICC's final hit of the game, as the Jaguars added on one more run of insurance in the eighth before stranding two Cougar walks in the top of the ninth to make the game final.
COUGAR HITTING
Kaiden Lucero | 1 single, 2 doubles, 1 walk
Thomas Krueger | 1 single, 1 triple, 1 stolen base
Ryan Brucker | 1 single, 2 RBI, 1 hit by pitch
Jayden Malone | 2 walks
Chris Casey | 1 home run, 1 RBI
Jake Stewart | 3 singles, 1 RBI
Elliot Seckman | 1 single, 2 RBI
COUGAR PITCHING
Mason Lynch | 4 innings, 11 hits, 4 earned runs, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts
Cam Clifton (L) | 1.1 innings, 3 hits, 3 earned runs, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts
Tyler Sabodor | 2.2 innings, 2 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, 2 strikeouts
WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
@ Southeastern Iowa Blackhawks (30-9)
Tuesday, April 15th - 4:00 PM
at Wagner Athletic Complex
West Burlington, Iowa
