Normal, IL - The Illinois Central College Baseball team (14-41) was down at the Corn Crib on Thursday opening up its portion of the Region 24-A Tournament, five days removed from its most recent game action. The Cougars seed pitted them against the host Heartland Hawks to start. The Hawks pulled away after three innings and kept the foot on the gas on route to a 10-1 victory. That result put ICC into an evening elimination game against Lewis & Clark, its second most recent MWAC opponent. The Trailblazers would chip away at the scoreboard, scoring a run or two in five of their eight innings at the plate, coming away with a 9-2 win and eliminating the Cougars from further postseason contention. 

HEARTLAND 10, ILLINOIS CENTRAL 1 (7 INN.)
Playing through the top of the second, both teams had traded a singular spot in the hit column, with Jake Stewart's 0-1 single being the Cougar half of the bargain, but it remained scoreless through that half inning. From there, the Hawks surged ahead in powerful fashion, scoring seven unanswered runs, including five in the bottom of the third, to take a commanding 7-0 lead. 

ICC, however, kept hacking away, holding the Hawks scoreless in the fourth and then getting a three-hit top of the fifth, which included an RBI double from Nate Bartman to make it a six-run game. Heartland, though, answered promptly, scoring one in the bottom half and then adding two more in the bottom of the seventh to force ICC into the elimination bracket. 

COUGAR HITTING
Ryan Brucker | 1 single
Jake Stewart | 1 single
Kyle Binder | 1 single
Elliot Seckman | 1 single
Nate Bartman | 1 double, 1 RBI

COUGAR PITCHING
Kaiser Quick (L) | 2.1 innings, 7 hits, 5 earned runs, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts
Spencer Timm | 1.2 innings, 3 hits, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts
Tyler Sabodor | 2 innings, 2 hits, 1 earned run, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts
Caleb Diver | 0.1 innings, 1 hit, 2 earned runs, 1 walk, 0 strikeouts

LEWIS & CLARK 9, ILLINOIS CENTRAL 2
The Heartland loss gave the Cougars a time slot off, but then it was right back to work, playing the Lewis & Clark Trailblazers for the right to extend the season. While not a 7-0 deficit like game one, there was still an early shot to the scoreboard, with the Trailblazers hitting a two-run home run in the bottom of the first to take an early lead.

Meanwhile, ICC would cut it to a one-run game in the top of the third when Thomas Krueger jumped on a 1-1 pitch and sent it over the center field fence to make it 2-1 Lewis & Clark at that point. 

From there, the Trailblazers hacked away, creating somewhat of a slow burn, never scoring more than two runs in an inning, but doing so nonetheless in four more innings over the rest of the game's duration. 

The Cougar offense wasn't done just yet. In the top of the seventh, after Jake Stewart singled and Colton Williams drew a walk to start the inning, Nate Bartman succeeded on an RBI sacrifice fly to score Stewart and trim the margin to 5-2 with only six offensive outs to play with at that current juncture. 

Lewis & Clark shut the door with four unanswered runs over the seventh and eighth innings, and ended ICC's season with a scoreless top of the ninth for the seven-run win and to move on to Friday. 

COUGAR HITTING
Kaiden Lucero | 1 walk
Thomas Krueger | 1 home run, 1 RBI
Ryan Brucker | 1 single
Jake Stewart | 2 singles
Colton Williams | 1 double, 1 walk
Nate Bartman | 1 single, 1 RBI

COUGAR PITCHING
Mason Lynch (L) | 4 innings, 5 hits, 3 earned runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts
Caleb Bieneman | 1.1 innings, 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 0 walks, 1 strikeout
Broker Bailey | 0.2 innings, 1 hit, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 1 strikeout
Logan Justus | 1.1 innings, 2 hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks, 1 strikeout
Finn Heath | 0.2 innings, 1 hit, 0 earned runs, 0 walks, 0 strikeouts

WHAT'S NEXT FOR THE COUGARS
Fall 2025 Season