Baseball Drops Home Opener to Eureka

 Fighting Scots’ baseball dropped their home opener to the Eureka Red Devils last Wed. Monmouth failed to put up any runs as they were shutout 2-0, mustering only three hits on the day.

After putting down the first two batters of the opening inning, Eureka tallied off three-consecutive singles. On the third single, Red Devils’ second-baseman Jake Carter drove in Grant Mullin from third for the one-run lead.

After the first-inning blunder, Mon-mouth pitcher Connor McDonald found his groove as he cruised the next four and a third innings without surrendering a run. Over that span, McDonald struck out three while allowing only three hits.

In the top of the sixth though, the Scots defense lost its rhythm as shortstop Justin Bost recorded an error off a ball hit by Eureka’s Mike Redmond, allowing the Red Devil to reach first base. McDonald followed up the botched play by walking Grant Mullin to put runners on first and second. The Scots recorded their first out of the inning on a fielder’s choice that put runners at the corners. After walking the next batter, the bases were loaded with one out. Eureka’s Joe Quinn took advantage of the moment successfully pulling off a sacrifice fly to score Redmond from third to take a 2-0 lead. The Scots got out of the sixth inning jam with no further damage.

Over the next four innings, Monmouth could not muster any sort of a late rally, as only one runner reached base off a hit-pitch. Connor McDonald fanned seven innings for the Scots striking out five, walking three, and surrendering one earned-run. Hunder De La Rosa pitched in relief, going two innings with two strikeouts, a walk, and no runs allowed.

Monmouth moves to 9-4 on the sea-son with their next matchup set with conference rival Knox College on Sat. at Glasgow Field for a doubleheader with games at noon and three.

Tate Heiple
Sports Editor