Scots Rally to Win MWC Tournament Opener

Guillermo's Seventh Inning Homer Propels Scots

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (05/09/2025) — The Monmouth College baseball team started the Midwest Conference Tournament with a comeback 4-3 win over #2 Beloit College on Friday in Appleton, Wisconsin. In the night game, the Fighting Scots (18-20) will face Lawrence

Daniel Lummus (New Port Richey, Florida) was hit by a pitch in the first inning but left at first while Beloit had a double, stranding the runner at third. Clayton Matkovic (Monmouth, Illinois)
and Aiden Scott (Carrollton, Texas) both singled in the second but were left on base. The Bucs put another runner in scoring position in the second but Ethan Zaayenga (Tremont, Illinois). Got a grounder to escape the inning.

Lummus led off the third with a single and moved to second on a single by Alexander Dye (Albuquerque, New Mexico). Raul Guillermo (Miami, Florida) just missed a home run to left with Lummus taking third on the deep flyout. A flyout left runners on the corners with the game still scoreless. Beloit took the lead in the bottom of the third with a leadoff single and 2-run homer to left.

Aidan Parkins (Monmouth, Illinois) led off the fourth with a single, giving the Scots the leadoff man on base for the fourth time. With two outs and Hunter Wheat (Athens, Illinois) at first base on a fielders' choice, Gabe Zeigler-Harris (East Peoria, Illinois) singled to center. However, a grounder to second ended the inning with two left on.

Zaayenga pitched out of trouble with a strikeout in the fifth and Matkovic led off the sixth with a single. Two straight fielders' choice grounders and a strikeout ended the inning with a runner left on first.

Nate Reed (Chenoa, Illinois) was hit by a pitch with two outs in the seventh and Dye beat out an infield single to put two on base. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch and Guillermo gave the Scots a 3-2 lead with his 10th home run of the season. He has three 3-run homers on the season and three go-ahead homers as well. Matkovic reached on an error, stole second and scored on a single by Parkins to give the Scots a 4-2 lead.

Beloit cut the lead in half with a solo home run with one out in the eighth. Owen Wolfe (Galesburg, Illinois) took over on the mound for Zaayenga and got a strikeout to end the inning.

The Bucs put the first two batters on base in the ninth with a single and an error. Wolfe and Parkins combined on a line drive double play when Beloit bunted for the first two outs. With the tying run on second, Wolfe got a flyout to right to end the game.

Zaayenga allowed three runs on two homers over 7 innings. He struck out three and walked two while allowing eight hits. Wolfe picked up his third save of the season with 1 innings as he allowed one hit and struck out one.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Guillermo has a 16-game hit streak ... His 10 homers are tied for second with Grant Myers (2018) and Bruce Stoflar (1971) for second most in a season in school history, one behind the record ... With 53 hits on the season he is tied for 12th in one season ... Lummus moved into 8th on the career games played list ... He also moved into 5th on the career at-bats list and 6th on the at-bats in a season list ... With 56 hits he is 6th on the single-season list ... Zaayenga has gone at least 5 innings in eight straight starts ... The 7 innings is a season high and ties his career high, also against Beloit, from 2024 ... With 12 starts on the season both Zaayenga and Turnquist moved into a tie for fourth place with four others for most-starts in a season ... Wolfe is tied for fourth on the single-season appearances list with 17 ... He's also tied for fifth on the career saves list with five ... Reed was hit by a pitch for the 18th time in his career, seventh most in MC history ... Guillermo had his 18th multi-hit game of the season in the opener while Lummus had his 17th, Dye had his 16th, Matkovic his 13th and Parkins his ninth ... Turnquist moved into a tie for 10th with Nick Corman ('23) for career pitching appearances with 36 ... Monmouth won the regular-season series 2-1 against both Beloit and Lawrence ... Monmouth leads the all-time series with Beloit 23-22 with a 5-3 MWC Tournament record ... The Scots will play host Lawrence at 7:30 p.m. Friday in a winners bracket game.