The Scots fell twice to the Beloit College Buccaneers on Monday this week, despite only one game previously being scheduled for that day.
Monmouth travelled to Beloit on Saturday for a double header, only for the second game to be suspended due to darkness. Both teams agreed to play out the rest of the game, plus the originally scheduled home game for the Scots on Monday at Glasgow field.
The Scots couldn’t mount a 4-run comeback in the last few innings, losing 8-4. Within the first three innings of the next game, Beloit scored in each, leaving the Scots in a 6-0 deficit coming into the fourth inning. While keeping the Buccaneers at bay, the Scots also couldn’t manage a run in the fourth.
Holding Beloit scoreless again in the fifth, Clayton Matkovic (Sherrard, Ill.) led off with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch. He went on to score on a groundout by Nate Reed (Chenoa, Ill.) as Monmouth cut the lead to 6-1. It wasn’t until the eighth that the Scots put another run on the board. 3rd baseman Jack Kuethe (Pekin, Ill.) and short stop Nate Melvin (Ottawa, Ill.) reached first and second base after being walked before Beloit changed hurlers.
With one out, Matkovic stepped up again for the Scots to bring in Kuethe before the change of inning despite grounding out, making the score 7-2. Beloit responded in the ninth inning by sending two runners home on a single into the outfield. The Scots closed out the game on two ground outs and a fly out.
Pitcher Cam Anderson (Bloomington, Ill.) took the loss for the Scots, allowing five runs, four earned. He walked four and struck out three. Derek Fitzgerald (Robertsville, Mo.) played a career-high six innings allowing two runs on six hits. Nick Corman (Monmouth, Ill.) entered in the ninth allowing two runs on two hits.
The Scots will play at Cornell in Iowa for a double header on Wednesday at 4 p.m. before returning to Glasgow on Tuesday, April 25 for a 3 p.m. game against Cornell.
Jake Rathgeb - Contributing Writer