Baseball Loses Lead Late, Falls to Olivet

March 13, 2018Posted in: Athletics

The Illinois Tech Baseball team faced the Olivet College Comets (2-5) on March 10. After taking an early lead, the Comets stormed ahead in the top of the sixth inning and hung on to win 6-1, moving Illinois Tech to 2-2 on the season.

Runs-Hits-Errors

  • Olivet: six runs, seven hits, zero errors
  • Illinois Tech: one run, seven hits, five errors

How it Happened

  • The Scarlet Hawks jumped ahead after shortstop Orlando Cardenas-Juan singled to extend his hitting streak to four games. After a Zachary Dickey walk and a Ted Howell single, second baseman DJ Rybski singled to drive in Cardenas-Juan and take a 1-0 lead.
  • Right fielder Peter Upham flied out to right field, followed by Olivet’s right fielder, Logan Wheeler, throwing out Dickey at home on an attempt to tag up and score. The out ended the inning.
  • Illinois Tech starter Ian Duke and Olivet starter Zac Walter really settled in moving forward. Duke’s big highlight was striking out the side in the third inning, at one point getting six straight swinging strikes. Walter escaped trouble twice after leadoff doubled from center fielder Michael Courtney while also managing to keep down his pitch count with just one walk.
  • Olivet jumped ahead in the sixth inning. After a single by Aaron Gillespie to extend the inning, Olivet’s Junior Gomez doubled down the right field line to take a two one lead.
  • The Comets scored twice more in the seventh, as three errors plagued Illinois Tech and meant Duke surrendered two unearned runs.
  • Olivet would also get to the Scarlet Hawk bullpen, scoring one run a piece on Jacob Geiger in the eighth and Neal Shah in the ninth.

Scarlet Hawk Standouts

  • Duke took the tough-luck loss, going seven innings and allowing just two earned runs on five hits, three walks, and six strikeouts.
  • Rybski was two-for-four and drove in the only run of the ballgame.
  • Courtney was two-for-three with two doubles and a hit by pitch.

Up Next

  • Illinois Tech will play next on Thursday, March 15 against Cazenovia at 12:30 p.m. CT. Live audio and stats will be available.
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