Contact:
Nathan Cameron, Assistant Director of Athletic Communications, 563-588-7243
JACKSONVILLE, Ill. (Mar. 6, 2021) - The Loras College baseball team (1-1, 0-0 A-R-C) opened their 2021 campaign at Illinois College Saturday afternoon, seeing the Duhawks split the season-opening series. In game one of the day, the Duhawks trounced the Illinois College Blue Boys (1-3, 0-0 MWC) by a final score of 15-5, but would fall to the Augustana College Vikings (3-0, 0-0 CCIW) by a 6-1 margin.
In the first matchup of the day against Illinois College, the Duhawks' bats were hot early and sustained through the ninth inning, with first baseman
Max Cullen getting things going in the top of the first inning on a sacrifice fly to right field that scored
Joe Egan to give Loras an immediate 1-0 lead after an inning of play. The second inning was a scoreless one, but it was again Cullen who drove in a run in the top of the third on an RBI single to left field that scored
Luke Fennelly. With two runners on base, junior
Ryan Wohlers singled to center field to score
Dylan Pardoe and Cullen to give the Duhawks a 4-0 lead at the end of the top half of the third. In the bottom of the third Illinois College answered by scoring three on an RBI double to center field from Jayden Kasai that cleared the bases to cut the Duhawks' lead to one after three innings.
Loras pulled away further from the Blue Boys in the top of the fourth, with Fennelly reaching on a fielder's choice that advanced
Dakota Church to third and scored Egan to bring Cullen to the plate with a runner in scoring position. An RBI single brought Church home to score from third and give the Duhawks a three run lead at the end of the fourth. Cullen continued his stellar day in the fifth inning where he drove in two more runners on an RBI double to center field that scored Egan and
Alex Kelsch, bringing the score to 8-3 in the fifth.
An inning later, Egan reached based on an error by the first baseman, seeing
Bill Luzzo advance to third and
Ricky Leske score to bring Church to the plate. Church reached on an RBI single to thired that scored Luzzo, adding two more runs in the sixth inning. The seventh inning saw both sides add runs to the board, with the Duhawks scoring on a Wohlers RBI single to third and the Blue Boys putting up two on a two-run home run from Kasai.
After a scoreless eighth inning, the Duhawks sealed the deal on the win by adding four more runs in the top of the ninth with the first coming from Nick DiBendetto who drove in Wohlers on an RBI double to center field. With the bases loaded, Fennelly drew a walk that scored
Chris Costantino. A batter later with the bases still later, Cullen drew another walk to bring DiBendetto home. Pardoe followed suit and also walked to bring Church across the plate and bring the final score to 15-5.
Davis Pasco recorded his first win of the season, dishing 6.0 innings on the mount and striking out six, allowing only three runs on five hits. Four Duhawks recorded extra-base hits, with Egan, Fennelly, Cullen and DiBendetto each hitting doubles. Cullen had a career day at the plate, driving home six runners while Wohlers brought home three and Fennelly with two. Church, Pardoe and DiBendetto each recorded one RBI in the game.
The second game of the day saw the Duhawks take on the Augustana College Vikings, with
Erik Edminster getting his first start on the mound this year for the Duhawks.
The game was scoreless for the first three innings of the game until Augustana's Matt Ozanic hit an RBI single to center to score a run and put the Vikings on the board first. Two more runs went on to score in favor of the Vikings that same inning to see the Duhawks trail by three after four innings of play.
An inning later, it was again Ozanic that drove in runs for Augustana on an RBI double that scored two to further the opposition's lead to 5-0 after five innings. One more run went on to score for Augustana on an RBI single to left field from center fielder Jacob Barker to tack on a sixth run for the Vikings.
Luzzo drove home the lone run for the Duhawks, showing grit in the top of the ninth on an RBI single to center field that went on to score Wohlers, bringing the final score to 6-1 in favor of the Vikings.
Edminster threw 4.2 innings for the Duhawks, recording three strikeouts and allowing five runs on five hits, only walking one.
Ethan Peters and
Owen Funke also saw action on the mound, striking out a combined five batters.
The Duhawks will travel to Jacksonville, Ill. again on Saturday, Mar. 13 to take on the University of Northwestern (Minn.) and the Blue Boys from Illinois College once more in a non-conference double header. The Duhawks are set to face University of Northwestern (Minn.) at 12:00 PM with the Illinois College matchup immediately following.
