Scots Hold On Late, Win Series at Grinnell

Lummus drives in five with four hits

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (04/06/2025) — The Monmouth College baseball team held on in the ninth inning for an 8-7 win at Grinnell on Sunday, clinching the 3-game series. The Fighting Scots (9-14, 4-4) have won five of their last six games overall and four of the last five in conference play.

"What a tough series, but that is always expected against Grinnell," said head coach Alan Betourne. "Sunday was a great team win with everyone picking each other up to win game 3 and the series."

The Pioneers took a 1-0 lead against Roy Ralston (Macon, Illinois) in the first inning with a solo home run. Eric Campen (Washington, Illinois) walked with one out in the second inning and Aidan Scott (Carrollton, Texas) singled to left. With runners on the corners and two outs, Daniel Lummus (New Port Richey, Florida) tied the game with a single to center.

Campen singled to start the fourth and Scott singled before both runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Hunter Wheat (Athens, Illinois). Lummus launched his fourth home run in the last six games to give the Scots a 4-1 lead.

Grinnell scored a run in the sixth inning but Ralston got out of the inning with his career-high 10th strikeout. Owen Wolfe (Galesburg, Illinois) threw a scoreless seventh to keep the Scots on top 4-2.

"That was a big start by Roy," said Betourne. "Lummus had some clutch hits to swing the momentum as well."

Scott led off the eighth with a single and Wheat sacrificed again. Lummus made it 5-2 with a triple and Nate Reed (Chenoa, Illinois) walked. Alexander Dye (Albuquerque, New Mexico) was hit by a pitch and Raul Guillermo (Miami, Florida) reached on an error as two runs scored, Clayton Matkovic (Sherrard, Illinois) singled home Dye and the Scots took an 8-2 lead.

Grinnell scored two runs on three hits to start the eighth and Nick Villa (El Segundo, California) took over on the mound. An error, wild pitch and two walks made it 8-6 and Caleb Ochs (Royal, Illinois) came in for Villa. A sacrifice fly cut the Monmouth lead to 8-7 before another flyout ended the inning.

Ochs got two quick outs to start the ninth before a walk and hit batter put the tying and winning runs on base. The freshman got a strikeout swinging to end the game for his first collegiate save.

"Ochs really stepped up with great effort to close out the game," said Betourne. "It is good to have the traveling trophy back!"

Ralston (1-2) picked up the win with a career-high 10 strikeouts over six innings as he gave up just two runs on three hits. Wolfe struck out two and Ochs got the save with one strikeout over 1 hitless and shutout innings.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Ralston has gone at least six innings in three straight starts ... He struck out eight against Lawrence last Sunday and has 18 strikeouts in 12 conference innings this season ... Wolfe has pitched in 11 of Monmouth's 23 games ... Lummus tied his career high from March 12, 2024 with four hits ,,, His five RBI are a season high and one off his career high from March 4, 2023Lummus has four homers on the season, two in this series and all four have been in the last six games ,,, He has seven hits, nine RBI, five runs scored and two home runs in the series ,,, With two hits, Guillermo moved into a tie for 11th with Matt Temaner on the career hits list ,,, He also moved into a tie for 7th on the career total bases list with Ryan Crandall ,,, With 131 career games played, Guillermo moved into a tie for 11th with Joe Larkins ,,, Lummus moved into 16th in career at-bats and into a tie for 14th in career hits ,,, Aiden Parkins (Monmouth, Illinois) had two hits and Scott had three ,,, Scott, Campen and Lummus all scored two runs ,,, Monmouth leads the all-time series 145-69 and they won the season series for the first time since 2021 ,,, Monmouth plays at Illinois Wesleyan Wednesday night ,,, The next home game is against Knox on Saturday, April 12.