The Monmouth College baseball team finished the season on Sunday with a pair of home non-conference losses to Carthage College. The Fighting Scots (16-23) fell 9-6 and 12-2 in eight innings.
Carthage took the lead early in the opener with three runs in the first against Addison Fletcher (Monmouth, Illinois). They doubled the lead in the fourth and added two more in the fifth for an 8-0 lead.
The Scots got on the board in the fifth. Nate Melvin (Ottawa, Illinois) singled, stole second and moved to third on a throwing error. A groundout by Logan Komater (Ottawa, Illinois) scored Melvin to make it 8-1.
Monmouth closed the gap in the sixth. Christian Centeno (Miami, Florida) led off with a single and moved to third as Aiden Scott (Carrollton, Texas) singled. Nate Reed (Chenoa, Illinois) single home Centeno and with one out, Scott scored on a wild pitch. With two down, Komater doubled home Reed and came around to score on a balk and a wild pitch.
Down 9-5, Monmouth closed the gap in the eighth. Reed walked and Tyler Houck (Park Ridge, Illinois) reached on an error. Komater drove in Reed with a groundout but Carthage escaped the inning up 9-6 and closed out the Scots in the ninth.
Fletcher (2-4) took the loss as he allowed eight runs on six hits and seven walks over five innings. He struck out two in the start.
GAME TWO
Carthage took an early lead in game two as well. They plated a run on two doubles in the first and connected on a 3-run homer off Jeff Garrett (Aledo, Illinois) in the second. Another homer in the third put the visitors on top 6-0.
Jack Kuethe (Pekin, Illinois) led off the fourth with a solo home run, his fifth of the season for the Scots. Down 9-1, the Scots scored on an error in the sixth before Carthage went up 12-2 and finished off the game in the eighth.
Garrett (3-3) took the loss as he allowed six runs on seven hits over three inningsHe walked one and struck out one.
MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Kuethe led the team with five homers on the season. Komater had two hits and drove in three in the opener..Scott also had two hits in game one. Seniors Jakob Brokaw (Andalusia, Illinois), Tim McNally (Paw Paw, Illinois) and Nicholas Corman (Monmouth, Illinois) all pitched out of the bullpen on Sunday as did departing sophomore Riley Jennings (Knoxville, Illinois).., Centeno had three hits in game two to finish the season at .311 after starting the day at .297. Corman made his 35th career appearance, tied for 10th on Monmouth’s all-time list. Fletcher’s 31 appearances are tied for 18th and his 29 starts ranks ninthFletcher also finished 10th on the career strikeouts list with 146.
***Courtesy of Nathan Baliva, Monmouth College***
