Baseball Wins Series at Knox With Four-Run 11th
MONMOUTH, Ill. (04/14/2026) — The Monmouth College baseball team scored four runs in the top of the 11th to win 10-6 on Monday and clinch the series over Knox (5-23, 3-8). The Fighting Scots (10-16, 6-5) scored 32 runs in the series with 46 hits.
Aidan Parkins (Monmouth, Illinois) led off the game with a walk and moved to second on a 1-out wild pitch. Clayton Matkovic (Sherrard, Illinois) put the Scots on top with a single and Eric Campen (Washington, Illinois) singled with two down. However, the Scots left two on base and Brandon Coats (Mapleton, Illinois) kept Knox off the board in the first.
Zach Almaguer (Monmouth, Illinois) led off the second with a single. He moved to third on a sac bunt and flyout. Parkins walked again and as he stole second, Almaguer came home on an errant throw. Midwest Conference Player of the Week Jace Wilkerson (East Peoria, Illinois) walked but the Scots again left two on base.
Knox got on the board with a leadoff solo homer. They tied the game in the second with two walks, a ground out and sacrifice fly.
Hunter Wheat (Athens, Illinois) walked in the fourth and with one out, Parkins singled to put runners on the corners. With two down, Matkovic doubled home both runners for a 4-2 lead. He stole third and scored on a single by Aiden Scott (Carrollton, Texas) for a 5-2 lead.
Leading 5-3, Jacob Blunck (Forsyth, Illinois) doubled and moved up on a grounder. Wheat put the Scots up 6-3 with a single before Knox got out of the inning.
Coats hit two batters in the bottom of the seventh and Knox tied the game with a 2-out, 3-run homer. Coats walked the next batter and gave way to reliever Owen Alford (Hopedale, Illinois) who got out of the inning.
Neither team scored in the eighth before the Scots left two runners on base in the top of the ninth. Dane Keeven (Edwardsville, Illinois) took over on the mound for the Scots and gave up a lead off single before picking the runner off and getting out of the inning.
Parkins led off the 10th with a walk and Matkovic walked with one out. They pulled off a double steal but a strikeout and groundout ended the inning. Knox also left runners on in the bottom of the inning as the game moved to the 11th.
Blunck started the 11th by reaching on an error and Almaguer singled. Knox changed pitchers and pinch-hitter Logan Straube (Wheaton, Illinois) walked with one out. Parkins doubled to right-center to clear the bases and he also scored when the relay through was wild for a little league grand slam.
Knox loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning on a hit batter, single and walk. With two outs and the tying run at the plate, Keeven got a strikeout looking to end the game.
Coats took a no-decision as he allowed six runs on four hits over 6 2/3 innings while hitting three, walking three and striking out five. Alford allowed one hit over 1 1/3 shutout innings. Keeven (3-0) picked up the win with three shutout innings. He allowed four hits, struck out three and walked two.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Parkins now has seven multi-RBI games and 11 multi-hit games ... Campen has eight multi-hit gamesMatkovic had four hits for his 10th multi-hit game of the season ... He moved into 17th on the career Monmouth hits list and sixth on the walks list ... He also collected his 25th career double ... Parkins and Matkovic both stole two bases ... Almaguer and Wheat had their second straight multi-hit game ... Coats has hit 13 batters in 36 1/3 innings this season, tied for the team lead ... The bullpen did not allow a run over 4 1/3 innings of work and hasn't allowed an earned run over the last 7 2/3 innings ... Coats had a season-high five strikeouts and has gone at least 5 1/3 innings in three straight starts ... The Scots lead the all-time series 209-159-2 including a 15-6 mark in the last six seasons ... Monmouth plays at Illinois College on Wednesday with a 1 p.m. first pitch ... The next home game is a Noon DH against Cornell on Saturday, April 18.
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Nathan Baliva 309-457-2322, nbaliva@monmouthcollege.eduShare this Story
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