The Monmouth College baseball team dropped a pair of games to Kenyon College in Florida on March 11. The Fighting Scots (4-6) lost the double header 13-6 and 4-1 and are now 3-3 on the trip. After a scoreless first inning, the Owls used two-out hits to take the lead against Monmouth starter Heath Hornke (Normal, Illinois) in the second inning. A bloop single to right and a triple down the right-field line made it 1-0.
The Scots pulled even in the bottom of the third with their own two-out rally. Nate Reed (Chenoa, Illinois) was hit by a pitch and scored on a triple to right by Aidan Parkins (Monmouth, Illinois).
The Owls regained the lead in the fourth with a pair of singles and a sacrifice fly. A bases loaded walk made it 3-1 and two runs scored on an infield error. The Owls made it 6-1 with a double steal of second and home before Parkins made a nice play at third to end the inning.
The Owls scored two more with a two-out bases loaded single in the fifth against Gianni Gallichio (Yorkville, Illinois). Monmouth escaped the inning as Gallichio struck out the next batter.
Daniel Lummus (New Port Richey, Florida) singled with two outs in the fifth and stole second. Reed singled to center, cutting the Kenyon lead to 8-2. The Owls got that run back with a single and three straight hit batters in the sixth. An error gave Kenyon a 10-2 lead and another error cleared the bases for a 13-2 game. Alexander Dye (Albuquerque, New Mexico) threw out a runner at the plate from right field to end the inning.
Dye tripled to right-center with one out in the sixth. Clayton Matkovic (Sherrard, Illinois) lined a RBI single to center and scored on a triple by Eric Campen (Washington, Illinois). Jacob Blunck (Forsyth, Illinois) beat on an infield single as Campen scored for a 13-5 game. Freshman Cade Farquer (Williamsfield, Illinois) singled to right in his first college at-bat and gave way to pinch-runner Drew Brown (Alexis, Illinois). Blunck scored on an error but Kenyon escaped the inning with a 13-6 lead.
Owen Zanger (Quincy, Illinois) made his college debut and was hit by the first pitch he saw to start the seventh. Logan Straube (Wheaton, Illinois) pinch ran and Bobby Russell (Plainfeild, Illinois) was hit by a pitch in his first plate appearance in a Monmouth uniform. Two straight fielders' choices put runners on the corners but a flyout ended the game.
Hornke (0-1) took the loss with three earned runs allowed and three strikeouts over three innings.
GAME TWO
Kenyon scored an unearned run against freshman Caleb Ochs (Royal, Illinois) with a sacrifice fly in the top of the first. Monmouth answered with an unearned run in the second. With two on and two out, Lummus singled home Jonas Buckles (Albuquerque, New Mexico) to tie the game.
Kenyon regained the lead in the third with a walk and three straight two-out singles. Down 4-1, Monmouth loaded the bases in the fourth with one out but didn't score with an infield fly pop up and a groundout.
Owen Wolfe (Galesburg, Illinois) replaced Ochs in the fourth and fired off two shutout innings Nick Villa (El Segundo, California) tossed a shutout sixth inning with a strikeout but Monmouth didn't get anything in their last three innings.
Ochs (0-1) took the loss with three earned runs in three innings of work in his first collegiate start.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Lummus had hits in both games and has at least one hit in all 10 games this season ... Reed is ninth in Monmouth history in career hit by pitches with 14 ,,, Parkins had his second straight 2-hit game in game one ... Buckles tied his career-high with two hits in game two ... Zanger and Farquer made their college debut as a pinch-hitter in game one ... Logan Straube (Wheaton, Illinois), Caden Gores (Hugo, Minnesota) and Jon-Marc Torrez (San Angelo, Texas) also made their college debuts ... Gallichio, Ithal and Brown made their season debuts ... Gallichio and Ithal both set new career highs with two strikeouts ... Garofoli played the field for the first time as a collegian after pitching on Sunday ... Monmouth used 24 players in game one, 21 position players and three pitchersThe first game had nine batters hit by a pitch, six by Monmouth pitchers ... Game two had three hit batters, two by Kenyon pitchersKenyon leads the all-time series 8-4 ... The Scots and Owls split a Florida double header in 2024 ...
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