Monmouth College

Wilkerson Hits Walk Off Homer as Scots Split with Rams

by Nathan Baliva

MONMOUTH, Ill. (04/19/2026) — The Monmouth College baseball team got a walk-off homer from junior Jace Wilkerson (East Peoria, Illinois) on Saturday to split a double header with Cornell. The Fighting Scots (11-18, 7-7) dropped the opening game 7-1 before winning 8-6 in the nightcap. The teams will play the rubber match in Iowa on Sunday.

Roy Ralston (Macon, Illinois) recorded a strikeout for each of the first five outs but pitched into some trouble in the third. A lead off walk and a walk with one out put two Rams on base. The next batter hit a double-play ball back to Ralston but the throw to first was wild and both runners scored for a 2-0 lead. After two walks loaded the bases, the Monmouth right-hander got out of the inning with two more strikeouts.

Ralston pushed his strikeout tally to 10 with two more in the fourth after allowing his first hit of the game. A solo homer started the Cornell fifth as they pushed the lead to 3-0.

The Scots offense couldn't mount a threat and Cornell scored four times off reliever Dane Keeven (Edwardsville, Illinois) in the seventh. A walk, two doubles and a single made it 7-0 for the visitors.

Jacob Blunck (Forsyth, Illinois) led off the seventh with a single and Zach Almaguer (Monmouth, Illinois) doubled. However, two strikeouts and a groundout kept the Scots off the board. Clayton Matkovic (Sherrard, Illinois) reached on an error with one out in the eighth and Eric Campen (Washington, Illinois) singled. Both runners moved up on a wild pitch and Matkovic scored on a ground out by Aiden Scott (Carrollton, Texas).

Ralston (1-5) took the loss as he allowed two earned runs on three hits over five innings. Ralston struck out 10 and walked four in the loss. Keeven allowed four runs on four hits over two innings of work while striking out and walking two. Weslee Frame (Fairview, Illinois) threw a perfect inning against his former team with a strikeout. Caleb Ochs (Royal, Illinois) also threw a perfect inning with a strikeout.

GAME TWO

Cornell took the lead against Ethan Zaayenga (Tremont, Illinois) in the first inning. The Rams had two straight hits with one out and then drove in a run with a 2-out single.

Aidan Parkins (Monmouth, Illinois) led off with a double but the Scots left him at third in the first inning. In the second, Scott led off with a single and Blunck singled. With one out, Hunter Wheat (Athens, Illinois) worked a walk and Parkins drove in two with a single. Parkins tricked the Rams into chasing him back to first, allowing Wheat to score for a 3-1 lead.

Zaayenga, who took a liner off the wrist in the second inning, retired nine of 10 batters before hitting a batter in the fifth. With two down and two on, he got a pop up to end the threat. The Scots added on as Wilkerson singled and scored on a Scott double for a 4-1 lead.

Wheat tripled to start the sixth inning and Parkins put the Scots up 5-1 with a single to left. Cornell got two back in the seventh with two singles, a throwing error and a sacrifice fly.

Leading 5-3, the Scots tacked on an insurance run in the seventh. Matkovic led off with a double and after a pitching change, Blunck made it 6-3 with a sacrifice fly to center.

Will Baumgartner (Sycamore, Illinois) walked two in the eighth but got out of the jam with a ground out. Ryan Garofoli (Chicago, Illinois) came on for the save in the ninth. A single and wild pitch put a runner on second before an error put runners on the corners. A grounder hit Garofoli and all the runners were safe as the Rams scored. A single made it 6-5 before a sacrifice fly tied the game. With the go-ahead run on third, Garofoli got a fly out to Gabriel Zeigler-Harris (East Peoria, Illinois) in center to end the inning.

Campen led off the bottom of the ninth with a line drive single to center off a new Rams pitcher. Wilkerson stepped up and launched the first pitch he saw over the right field fence, down the line, for a walk-off 2-run homer.

Garofoli (2-0) picked up the win in relief. He allowed one earned run on three hits in one inning. Zaayenga went seven innings as the starter and left in line for a win. He allowed two earned runs on eight hits while striking out three and walking one. Baumgartner didn't allow a hit or run in his one inning of work.

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: The game two win was Monmouth's 100th of the decade marking the sixth straight decade with at least 100 wins ... Wilkerson has eight homers on the season, seven in MWC action ... He has homered at least once against each of the five MWC teams Monmouth has faced ... He moved past Raul Guillermo's 2024 season and into a tie with Mike Dato (2018), Joe Larkins (2000) and Marty Wright (1983) for sixth on the single season home run list ... Wilkerson has nine multi-hit games and nine multi-RBI games ... Parkins now has 13 multi-hit games and Scott has 10 ... Wilkerson, Campen, Scott and Alamaguer had hits in both games and Scott had a RBI in both games ... Ralston is the ninth pitcher in school history with at least 150 career strikeouts as he moved past Addison Fletcher (2020-23) and Harold Fay (1983-86) into the top 10 ... He also set a new career-high in strikeouts in a season with 62 after having 54 last year ... Saturday was his second 10 strikeout game of the season and third of his career ... Zaayenga recorded his 100th career strikeout in the second inning ... He is tied for 10th in MC history with 27 games started on the mound ... Monmouth leads the all-time series 107-44-2 ... The seniors are 7-4 against Cornell ... Monmouth has won the season series three of the last four years with a 3-game sweep in 2025 ... The teams play at Cornell in Mount Vernon, Iowa Sunday at Noon ... The next home game is next Saturday with a Noon DH against Grinnell.