Scots use late-game rally to earn split with RedHawks in home debut
Billy Lopatto - Staff Writer
After having to cancel two home openers, one snowed out and the other washed out. The Fighting Scots baseball finally played their home opener, splitting a doubleheader with the visiting Ripon RedHawks on Saturday. A late game rally led to the Scots winning game one 11-8, before ending up on the wrong side of an 8-0 shutout in game two.
In game one, the Scots were the first to find the scoreboard when Clayton Matkovic smacked a double to left center field in the first inning, scoring teammates Aiden Scott and Eric Campen. After the RedHawks scored a run on an RBI single in the second inning, Zack Almauger raced home on a wild pitch in the home half to give Monmouth a 3-1 lead at the end of two frames.
Aidan Parkins slides to safety. Photo by Kent Kriegshauser
Ripon did not stop there. In the fourth inning, Redhawk infielder Alex Ramus scored on a sacrifice fly ball by shortstop Raidan Shibayama. Back-to-back home runs, first a grand slam by Jack Anderson followed by a solo shot to left field by Gabriel Kennedy, boosted the RedHawks to a 7-3 lead at the middle of the fourth. The visitors tacked on another run with a Kyle Hickman sacrifice fly to grow the lead to 8-3 in the sixth.
From there on out, however, it was all Monmouth. The Scots rallied for three runs in the sixth inning, exploded for five runs in the seventh, and never looked back to shut the door on the RedHawks in the opener. The winning pitcher for the Scots was freshman Dane Keevan, who pitched the latter four innings in relief for starter Roy Ralston, fanning two RedHawks. Ralston pitched the first five frames and sat down three batters.
The momentum the found by the Scots didn’t carry over into the second game. The RedHawks took victory in the nightcap by a score of 8-0. With these results, both sides start conference play at 1-1 and are in a four-way tie with Cornell and Lawrence.
The Scots will travel to Beloit, Wisconsin to face the Beloit Buccaneers on Friday and Saturday, April 3 and 4. The Scots then return home on April 7th to play a twin bill with the Illinois College Blue boys with the first pitch at 1.