The Monmouth College baseball team went on the road Wednesday and swept Knox with wins of 4-0 and 9-5. The Scots (6-9, 2-2) got a dominating pitching performance from freshman Cam Anderson (Bloomington, Illinois) in the opener and then got the bats going in game two.
Anderson got the start for the Scots in the opener and he kept Knox off-balance all game long. Anderson struck out three of the first seven batters he faced and then added two more strikeouts in the fourth. He pitched around a runner on second base in the fifth inning and got to double-digit strikeouts in the seventh with a pair.
The game was scoreless until the eighth. Tyler Houck (Park Ridge, Illinois) led off with a single and moved to second on a groundout. Nate Melvin (Ottawa, Illinois) singled to put runners on the corners and Raul Guillermo III (Miami, Florida) gave the Scots the lead with a double. Christian Centeno (Miami, Florida) walked and Reid Stufflebeem (Galesburg, Illinois) was hit by a pitch to bring home Melvin. Clayton Matkovic (Sherrard, Illinois) walked with the bases loaded to make it 3-0 and Daniel Lummus (New Port Richey, Florida) drew a walk for a 4-0 lead.
Anderson struck out a career-high 11 in his second career start, one more than he had in Florida. He allowed three hits over seven shutout innings. Cade Sharp (Aledo, Illinois) threw two shutout innings with three strikeouts to finish off the win.
GAME 2
Monmouth wasted no time in taking the lead in game two. Houck led off with a single and he moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Logan Komater (Ottawa, Illinois) with two down, Guillermo crushed a no-doubt home run to left field for a 2-0 Scots lead.
Knox got on the board in the bottom of the first against Monmouth starter Tim McNally (Paw Paw, Illinois). Two walks and a wild pitch put runners on second and third with one out. A groundout to second scored a run and a single to center tied the game.
The Scots regained the lead with a two-out rally in the fourth. Todd Fowler (Chatham, Illinois) singled to advance Toby Turnquist (Monmouth, Illinois) to second. Lummus put the Scots on top 3-2 with a single but Knox tied the game in the bottom of the inning with a squeeze bunt.
In the sixth, Turnquist led off with a walk and was replaced by pinch-runner Steven Martinez (Hidalgo, Texas). Jack Kuethe (Pekin, Illinois) singled and both runners moved up on a sac bunt by Fowler. Lummus doubled to bring home both runners and give the Scots a 5-3 lead. Houck kept the inning going with a single and Komater’s single made it 6-3. Melvin singled to load the bases and Knox made a pitching change. Guillermo singled to drive in two more runs and give the Scots an 8-3 lead.
The Scots added on another run in the seventh. Kuethe led off with a double and came around to score on a two-out single by Houck with a 9-3 lead.
McNally (1-2) threw seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits to earn the win. He walked four and struck out three. Knox scored two off Carson Mohler (Temple Terrace, Florida) in the eighth. Riley Jennings (Knoxville, Illinois) threw the ninth inning with a strikeout and no runs allowed.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: The 11 strikeouts by Anderson are the most for a Monmouth pitchers since Jeff Garrett struck out 11 Knox batterson April 12, 2021. The shutout in the opener was the first for the Scots since a 12-0 win over Gettysburg on March 6, 2022 in Florida and the first in a 9-inning game since Garrett beat Knox on April 12, 2021. Guillermo has an 11-game hit streak and he’s had a RBI in five straight games. He had five hits and five RBI on the day. Houck is 14-for-25 in the last five games. Melvin had four hits in the opener while both Houck and Guillermo had two. Lummus had three hits and three RBI in game two. Monmouth leads the all-time series 203-155-2. Monmouth was 2-1 against Knox last year and the Scots are 12-3 against the Prairie Fire since the start of the 2019 seasonMonmouth is 13-3 at Knox under Coach Betourne. The teams play in Monmouth on April 11. Monmouth will play their home opener on Saturday with a Noon double header against Chicago and then host Chicago for a single game at Noon on Sunday.
***Courtesy of Nathan Baliva, Monmouth College***
