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For Immediate ReleaseBaseball -- April 28, 2012
Red Devils Drop Twinbill to Chicago
EUREKA, Ill. – Chicago racked up 31 hits over the course of its doubleheader sweep of the Eureka College baseball team, Saturday afternoon at Henry Sand Field. The visiting Maroons spoiled the Red Devils’ Senior Day festivities with an 8-1 victory in the opener and a 16-5 triumph in game two.
Chicago, a Division III baseball independent currently receiving votes to land just outside the D3Baseball.com national Top 25 poll, scored the first run of the afternoon when Jack Cinoman drilled a two-out double and later scored on Ricky Troncelliti’s RBI single for a 1-0 lead in the third inning. The UC lead swelled to 3-0 in the fourth on a pair of unearned runs. Two Eureka errors, both with two outs in the inning, allowed Tony Logli’s single to plate Steven Schwabe and William Katzka for the 3-0 cushion.
The Maroons blew the game open with a five-run fifth inning for an 8-0 advantage. Brett Huff provided the big blow of the frame, a three-run home run over left-field fence to push the visitors to the eight-run advantage. Chicago collected only four hits and sent nine batters to the plate during the outburst.
Eureka got on the board with an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Senior right fielder Pierce Furrow (El Paso, Ill./El Paso-Gridley) led off the inning with a bunt single, advanced to third on consecutive groundouts and scored when Chicago catcher Stephen Williams fired an errant pickoff attempt into left field. Chicago reliever Ray Kim entered the game to record the final out and lock down the Maroons’ 8-1 victory.
Eureka sophomore shortstop Grant DeWitt (Mt. Sterling, Ill./Brown County H.S.) picked up a pair of infield singles to finish the opener 2-for-3. Chicago starting pitcher Claude Lockhart struck out nine over 6.2 innings. He threw 124 pitches and fell one out short of a complete game. Eureka sophomore Kyle Kiesewetter (Metamora, Ill./Metamora H.S.) yielded four earned runs in 4.0 innings in a losing effort.
The Maroons took another big lead early in the nightcap, using a four-run third inning on their way to building a 6-0 lead before the Eureka offense came to life in the fourth. A leadoff single from Eureka senior third baseman Eric Cuevas (Elk Grove Village, Ill./Curie H.S./Roosevelt), followed by an infield single from DeWitt and a dropped fly ball in the UC outfield allowed Cuevas to score Eureka’s first run of the game. Junior left fielder Eric Lopez (Lake Villa, Ill./Lakes H.S./Lake County) and sophomore catcher Brian Munson (Decatur, Ill./Warrensburg-Latham H.S.) drove in runs later in the inning, as Eureka also took advantage of two errors and three wild pitches from the Chicago defense during the frame.
Eureka’s rally would be short-lived, as Chicago answered by sending 13 batters to the plate as part of an eight-run fifth inning. The Maroons banged out eight hits during the frame and also benefitted from two errors, a hit batsman and a walk. Chicago tacked two more runs in the sixth thanks to run-scoring hits from J.R. Lopez and Katzka.
DeWitt turned in another solid performance for Eureka in game two, going 3-for-4 with a ground-rule double in the fifth inning. His five hits on Saturday bumped his team-best batting average to .356 in 36 starts as Eureka’s primary shortstop.
Eureka celebrated its annual Senior Day on Saturday, honoring seniors Cuevas, Mike Daxenbichler (Bartonville, Ill./Limestone H.S.), Furrow, Michael Hammerstrand (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington H.S.) and Blake McConkey (Fairview, Ill./Spoon River Valley H.S.) during a pregame ceremony. The Red Devils will play their final contest of the 2012 season Wednesday at 3 p.m. against Greenville at Henry Sand Field in Eureka.
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For More Information Contact:
Bryan Moore
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