Baseball Pitchers Set Tone in DH Sweep

Garrett, Fletcher in wins in Florida

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (03/09/2023) — The Monmouth College baseball team earned a sweep on Thursday as they beat Wheaton College 5-4 in the opener and knocked off Thiel College 3-1 in the nightcap. The Scots are now 3-5 on the season with one game left in Florida.

Jeff Garrett (Aledo, Illinois) got the start against Wheaton College in the opener. The game was scoreless into the third and with one out, Monmouth made an error that opened the floodgates for the Thunder. A walk and a single loaded the bases before another single gave Wheaton a 2-0 lead. After an infield single loaded the bases again, another hit to left made it 4-0.

The Scots responded immediately with a two-out rally. Daniel Lummus (New Port Richey, Florida) singled and Raul Guillermo III (Miami, Florida) singled to right. Jack Kuethe (Pekin, Illinois) walked and Todd Fowler (Chatham, Illinois) walked to bring home Lummus. Christian Centeno (Miami, Florida) doubled down the right-field line to drive home Guillermo and Kuethe. Fowler scored on a wild pitch to tie the game and Tyler Houck (Park Ridge, Illinois) singled to left to put the Scots up 5-4.

Neither team scored the rest of the way. Garrett allowed four runs, three earned, on six hits over seven innings of work. He walked two and struck out three. Owen Wolfe (Galesburg, Illinois) threw two shutout innings to earn his first college save. He ended the game with a strikeout looking as the Thunder had the tying run on second base.

In the second game, Addison Fletcher (Monmouth, Illinois) got the start for the Scots against Thiel College. Neither team scored through the first four innings of a pitcher's duel. Centeno led off the fifth with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. Nathan Reed (Chenoa, Illinois) walked and both runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Houck. Nate Melvin (Ottawa, Illinois) gave the Scots a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly to left field.

Neither team threatened until the seventh when Reed tripled with two outs. Houck walked and Reed scored on an error by the Thiel right-fielder as the Scots put runners on the corners. Melvin stole second and Houck scored on another Thiel error for a 3-0 lead.

Thiel got on the board against Fletcher in the seventh with a leadoff double, a flyout and a RBI groundout. The Tomcats threatened in the eighth with singles from two of the first three hitters. Fletcher got a strikeout looking and then a flyout ended the inning.

Fletcher (2-0) got the win as he struck out eight over eight innings while Nicholas Corman (Monmouth, Illinois) turned in a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his first save of the season.

The Scots will play their final game in Florida at 10 a.m. ET on Friday against Penn State-Behrend.