Baseball swings for the fences

by Ryne Tate
Courier Staff

The Fighting Scots played their first home game, unexpectedly, as MacMurray College was forced to travel north from Jacksonville due to weather conditions and play at Glasgow Field on Wednesday March 15. Glasgow Field was in great condition and the weather, while brisk did not hinder the Fighting Scots' efforts to win their first game on home turf.

The Scots won 9-3 while managing to get four pitchers some work on the mound. Head Coach Roger Sander said, "Early in the season it is good during these non-conference games to get your pitchers a lot of work, I dressed seven [pitchers] and four of them pitched." Senior and team ace Dan Dunn started the game and at one point dominated MacMurray by striking out the side.

Dunn only allowed four hits and three walks improving his record on the season to 2-1.

"I was a little bothered by the weather, but you can't let it get to you," Dunn said ", I got my innings and I'm ready to come back and pitch on Sunday."

After five innings of consistent pitching, Dunn handed the ball over to some other veteran Scots talent. The second half of the game was divided up by seniors Matt Engelhardt, Kevin Meinhart, and junior Scott Coles. Coles came in late in the game and pitched through the pressure of a close ball game with the Scots only up one run with two runners on base.

"It's a beautiful thing to get a save in a 9-3 game," Coles said. "The guys really came in and took the pressure off of me in the bottom of the eighth."

While the Scots pitching looked good throughout the game, the offensive attack was inconsistent.

"We had some ugly at-bats during key situations early in the game," Sander said as his team stranded 11 runners on base.

The highlights were three hits for Ryan Stubler who extends his hitting streak to eight games. Ryan Priola went on to extend his hitting streak to ten consecutive games.

"Stubler's scoring from second to home on Mark [Allemang's] single was when we knew we had the game, it was a good baserunning play," said senior Trent Jordan.'

The Fighting Scots showed their offensive strength in the eighth inning with a five-run rally.

Senior Joshua Ragar crushed a liner to the wall in left for a stand-up double only to be followed by senior Jason Salmon's perfectly placed bunt single. Salmon stole second on the next pitch -- the second time in the game he had stole immediately after reaching base.

The next two batters, sophomores Nate Palkovic and Stubler, each plated runs with RBI hits and then scored two batters later when pinch-hitting freshman Allemang hit a line-drive single to right-center. B.J. Luxmore, another freshman, followed with a double to score Allemang all the way from first.

Reliever Coles went out and finished off the Highlanders in the top of the ninth to secure the win.

The Scots got three fine defensive plays in the contest. Second baseman Palkovic turned an unsassisted double play on a line drive up the middle in the fourth inning , and Ragar threw out a runner stealing in the eighth after scooping a low pitch out of the dirt.

Also in the eighth, a strange play led to a 7-4-3-9 putout with right fielder Matt Gordon hustling in to cover first base and tag out a MacMurray batter who strayed too far off the base on an overthrow from the outfield.

It was a fine opening effort by the Fighting Scots. Come on out and see the Monmouth College Fighting Scots at Glasgow Field on Saturday Apr. 1 in a double header against MWC foe Grinnell.