Baseball Swept by Beloit on Saturday

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (04/27/2024) — The Monmouth College baseball team suffered two run-rule losses to Beloit at home on Saturday. The Fighting Scots (15-17, 8-11) lost 14-3 and 11-0 as they fell behind Cornell in the race for fourth place in the MWC standings.

WIth the wind howling out to right-center, Beloit took a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a solo home run off Cade Sharp (Aledo, Illinois). The Scots came right back in the bottom of the inning to tie the game. Clayton Matkovic (Sherrard, Illinois) led off with a double and moved to third on a single by Tyler Houck (Park Ridge, Illinois). Daniel Lummus (New Port Richey, Florida) tied the game with a single but the Scots left two on base.

A dropped fly ball started the top of the second with a two-base error. Beloit took advantage with a 7-run inning that included two doubles and another wall-scraping home run.

The Scots trailed 11-1 in the fifth when Lummus singled with one out. Raul Guillermo (Miami, Florida) launched a 2-run homer to right-center, his sixth of the season, to cut the Beloit lead to 11-3. The Buccaneers hit homers in the sixth and seventh innings to run-rule the Scots 14-3.

Sharp (3-4) took the loss with two innings of work. Clayton Rentschler (Riverton, Illinois) threw a career-high five innings in relief,

GAME TWO

The Buccaneers took advantage of three Monmouth errors to score four unearned runs in the first two innings of game two against Toby Turnquist (Monmouth, Illinois).

Alexander Keenan (Sherman, Illinois) singled with one out in the third inning and Matkovic walked. However, two straight ground outs ended the inning with two left in scoring position.

In the fourth, Guillermo reached on an error to start the inning and Reid Stufflebeem (Galesburg, Illinois) singled to right-center with one out. Nate Reed (Chenoa, Illinois) walked to load the bases but a double play ended the inning.

Beloit scored twice in the sixth with four straight 2-out hits. Roy Ralston (Macon, Illinois) took over on the mound for Turnquist and got out of the inning with a strikeout.

The Buccaneers added a run in the seventh and four more in the eighth off Ralston for the 11-0 run-rule win. Turnquist (2-3) took the loss with two earned runs allowed over 5 innings while striking out four.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Matkovic had 3-hits in the opener for his 13th multi-hit game of the season He had his team-leading ninth double Houck and Lummus both have 11 multi-hit games after having a pair of hits in game one Houck had hits in both games Guillermo hit his 14th career home run in game one to tie Austin Hardy and Ryan Sparks for 10th on the Monmouth career list Keenan's hit in game two was his second of the season in his third at-bat With his 40th career appearance on the mound, Sharp moved past Alex Sheetz for seventh on the Monmouth list Turnquist has gone at least 5.1 innings in four of his last five starts Beloit leads the series 21-19 and they have won six in a row against the Scots The Sunday game scheduled between these teams in Wisconsin has been postponed until Monday at 3:30 p.m.