Scots Baseball End Season with Split at Knox

Dato breaks career home run record

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill - (05/19/2021) — The Monmouth College baseball team won the opening game of Tuesday's double header 11-1 but they lost game two 11-5 at Knox, ending their season. The games, played in the pouring rain, left the Scots at 15-9 in the Midwest Conference and 17-11 overall. A sweep would have won the Southern Division for the Scots but instead Grinnell and Illinois College tied at 16-8 and IC will play for the MWC title against Beloit.

The Scots scored in the top of the first against Matt Shover. With one down, Logan Komater (Ottawa, Illinois) was hit by a pitch and Mike Dato (Oswego, Illinois) singled. Two wild pitches plated Komater before Sean Davis (Barrington, Illinois) drew a walk. Davis stole second and Justin Bost (Reynolds, Illinois) was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Nate Melvin (Ottawa, Illinois) singled home Dato and Davis before Bost scored on another wild pitch for a 4-0 Scots lead. Jake Brewer (Gibson City, Illinois) made it 5-0 with a RBI groundout as Melvin scored.

With a 5-1 lead the Scots added on in each of the next four innings. In the second Komater singled with two outs and Dato reached on an error. Davis singled home Komater for a 6-1 lead before the Prairie Fire got out of the inning. In the third, Shamus Murphy (Milan, Illinois) singled with two outs and Jordan Ball (Moscow Mills, Missouri) launched his first homer of the season for an 8-1 Scots lead.

Komater led off the fourth with another hit and with two outs he scored on a double by Bost. In the fifth the Scots made it 10-1 as Ball crushed his second homer of the game. Ball provided the final run as well when he doubled home Murphy in the eighth for the 11-1 lead.

Addison Fletcher (Monmouth, Illinois) improved to 6-0 with the win. He threw seven innings with one run allowed on three hits while striking out nine. Arturo Monroy (Chicago, Illinois) allowed one hit and struck out two in his one scoreless inning.

The Scots fell behind early in game two as Knox scored on a walk and two singles from the first four batters. They loaded the bases and took a 5-0 lead on a grand slam. Two hits and an error in the second gave the Prairie Fire a 7-0 lead.

The Scots trailed 9-0 after four innings. With one on and two out, Thomas Witty (Northbrook, Illinois) singled to move Matt Temaner (Gurnee, Illinois) to second. Dato took over the Scots career home run lead when he launched his fifth of the season and 19th of his career, a three-run shot.

The Scots chipped away at the deficit over the next two innings. In the fifth they loaded the bases on an error, hit batter and single. Witty beat out an infield single in the rain as Grant Powers (Kellar, Texas) scored. Davis launched his second homer of the season to start the seventh, cutting the Knox lead to 9-5.

Down 11-5 the Scots left two on base in the eighth. They put two runners on base in the ninth with runners on first and second but Knox got a groundout to end the game.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Davis finished the season with a 22-game hit streak Ball had 10 total bases and four RBI in game oneDato moved into ninth on the Scots career total bases list with 216Temaner finished 2nd on the Scots career list with 129 runs scored, 11th in hits (145), 11th in steals (20), 8th in at-bats (465), and 15th in doubles (27)Dato finished 1st in HR (19) and HBP (29), 4th in RBI (108), tied for 9th in doubles (31), 9th in total bases (220), 12th in AB (420), 17th in hits (132)Ball led the Scots with a .370 average on the season while Bost hit .345 and Davis hit .325Ball led the team with 37 RBITemaner led the team with 30 runs scoredBost led the way with 40 hitsDato led the team with five homersFletcher finished the season 6-0 with a 3.56 ERA in nine startsHe led the Scots with 55 2/3 innings pitched and 51 strikeouts...The Scots went 5-1 against Knox this season winning four of the games by the 10-run rule.