|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
For Immediate Releaseeureka, illinois
March 25, 2009
Eureka tops MacMurray 5-4 as Cashdollar slams door in 9th
With 16 of their final 20 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference games at home, the Red Devils needed to step up their play at Henry Sand Field after an 0-3 start. They did just that Wednesday afternoon, taking a 5-4 decision from MacMurray College to clinch the season series 2-1 over the Highlanders.
Clay McConkey (Fairview, Ill./Spoon River Valley) won his third consecutive start for Eureka (4-7-1, 4-2 SLIAC) and second over MacMurray (3-10, 2-3 SLIAC). McConkey fanned 10 Highlanders through the first eight innings, allowing just two runs. MacMurray was able to record 11 hits on the day, but McConkey was at his best in the clutch situations, holding the Highlanders without a hit in nine at bats with runners in scoring position. His teammates built a 5-2 lead, but things got much more interesting in the ninth than the Red Devils would have liked.
McConkey surrendered a base hit and walk and was pulled from the game with no one out. Benji Cashdollar (Morton, Ill./HS) was brought in from his right field position to save the game. After an infield fly for the first out, Cashdollar induced a potential double play ball, but an error allowed all three runners to be safe. Caleb Bourne then cracked a double to left center to set the runners in motion again. Only a quick recovery by the EC outfield kept the tying run from scoring. The next batter hit a squib short of the pitcher's mound. Cashdollar pounced on the ball and fired a nice throw to first for the second out. He finished off the first save of the year for Eureka by striking out MacMurray's Avion Forthenberry looking.
In all, the Highlanders posted just a .071 batting (1-for-14) average with runners in scoring position. The Red Devils were not much better, but managed four hits in 16 tries (.250). MacMurray left 13 runners on base, while EC stranded 11.
Eureka never scored more than one run in any frame. Nick Eeten (Eureka, Ill./HS) singled with two outs in the bottom of the first, went all the way to third on an infield hit by Nick Knoblauch (Metamora, Ill./HS), then put Eureka ahead 1-0 when an error extended the inning. Eeten pulled off the same trick in the fifth, this time going first-to-third on a ground out and coming home on an RBI single off the bat of Kyle Koerner (LeRoy, Ill./HS).
The Red Devils led 3-0 after five innings, but MacMurray got on the board quickly thereafter as James Backstein lifted a two-run homer to right in the sixth. Eureka answered in the bottom of the frame with one run on three hits. The Red Devils recorded 13 hits on the day, but Justin Fravell's (East Peoria, Ill./HS) double in the sixth was the only one that went for extra bases. Eeten's single with two outs was good for an RBI as EC pulled ahead 4-2.
Eureka scored what turned out to be the winning tally in the bottom of the seventh. Mike Wagner (Chicago, Ill./HS) had the last of his three hits to lead off the attack. He was erased on a fielder's choice, but Shawn Songer (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone) swiped his second base of the contest and raced home on Tim Cashdollar's (Morton, Ill./HS) two-out RBI hit.
Knoblauch joined Wagner in the three-hit club going 3-for-5. Wagner was 3-for-4 with an RBI. Fravell and Eeten each carded two hits.
The Red Devils will next play an exhibition game at Heartland Community College Thursday, March 26 in Normal starting at 3:00 pm. They will return to conference play at home Saturday, March 28 with a doubleheader against Maryville University beginning at 2:00 pm.
###
For More Information Contact:
Bryan Moore
|
|---|
|
|---|
