Baseball Starts Weekend With Win at Knox

Scots take season series with 5-4 road win

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (05/04/2024) — The Monmouth College baseball team started the final weekend of the regular season with a 5-4 win at Knox on Friday. The Scots (17-18, 10-11) are one game behind Cornell for the final MWC Tournament spot as they prepare to host first-place Lawrence this weekend and Cornell travels to second-place Chicago.

Monmouth jumped out to an early lead for the second game in a row. Clayton Matkovic (Sherrard, Illinois) led off with a single and moved to third on an error as Tyler Houck (Park Ridge, Illinois) reached on an infield single. Daniel Lummus (New Port Richey, Florida) gave the SCots a 1-0 lead with a sacrifice fly and Raul Guillermo (Miami, Florida) singled to right. Aidan Parkins (Monmouth, Illinois) singled home Houck and Alexander Dye (Albuquerque, New Mexico) reached on a fielders' choice to put runners on the corners. Nate Reed (Chenoa, Illinois) drove home Guilermo for a 3-0 lead and Jacob Blunck (Forsyth, Illinois) walked to load the bases before Knox got the third out.

Freshman Roy Ralston (Macon, Illinois) allowed just one hit through the first four innings and Monmouth added to the lead. Guillermo led off the fifth with a single and moved to third on an error as Parkins reached. Parkins stole second and Dye drove in Guillermo with a sacrifice fly for a 4-0 lead. Reed doubles home Parkins to give the Scots a 5-0 lead before the hosts escaped the inning.

The Scots rallied back in the fourth. Parkins was hit by a pitch and Dye singled before moving up on a wild pitch. Nate Reed (Chenoa, Illinois) reached on an error as Parkins scored and Aiden Scott (Carrollton, Texas) doubled home Dye. With two outs, Matkovic's seventh triple of the season not only broke the single-season record but also tied the game 8-8 as Reed and Scott scored.

Up 5-4, Monmouth turned things over to Nick Villa (El Segundo, California) in the ninth. He struck out the leadoff man before getting two straight grounders to secure the win.

Ralston (3-3) earned the win as he struck out six over six innings while allowing two runs on four hits. Brandon Coats (Mapleton, Illinois) walked one in a hitless and scoreless inning. Ethan Zaayenga (Tremont, Illinois) allowed two runs on one hit and two walks in his one inning of work. Villa picked up his third save of the season with a strikeout in a perfect ninth.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Matkovic had three hits and leads the Scots with 15 multi-hit games He is the 16th place to have at least 50 hits in a season for Monmouth Reed had three hits and two RBI Guillermo had two hits and scored twice Houck leads the team with seven sacrifices on the season He was also hit by a pitch for the 17th time in his career, seventh on the Monmouth list Ralston leads the team with 14 appearances, tied for 11th most in a single-season Ralston went 2-0 against Knox this season with 14 strikeouts in 11 innings Villa is tied for eighth on the single-season saves list with three The Scots are 206-156-2 all-time against Knox and 23-8 under coach Betourne since the start of the 2016 season Monmouth has won the season series in six straight seasons The Saturday home doubleheader against Lawrence has been moved up to 11 a.m. and the teams will also play Sunday at Noon in Monmouth Sunday is Senior Day.