Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 GALESBURG, Ill. – The Grinnell College baseball team clinched a spot in the Midwest Conference Baseball Tournament with a pair of wins over Knox College Wednesday.

The Pioneers, who completed a season sweep of the Prairie Fire with the wins, took the opener 18-4 in eight innings and won the second game 9-5 in a contest called in the seventh inning due to darkness.

Grinnell has now qualified for the MWC Tourney for the sixth season in a row.
 
With the wins, Grinnell improved to 9-3 in the Midwest Conference South Division and 16-14 in all games. The Prairie Fire dipped to 2-10 in league play and 13-17 overall.
 
Grinnell erupted for 18 hits in the opener, including three each by Ryan Penaflor '16, Anthony Mack '16, Jacob Beecher '16 and Kainoa Inafuku '14. Matt Hammond '17 and Walker Bell '15 had two hits each. Penaflor and Hammond had doubles among their totals.
 
Graham Fisher '16 was the winning pitcher, scattering nine hits over seven innings while striking out five. Grinnell opened the scoring with two runs in the first inning, those coming from Inafuku's RBI single and a sacrifice fly by Niko Takayesu '17.
 
Knox went ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the inning before Grinnell tied things with a run in the sixth. Mack's RBI single plated the run.
 
Grinnell then erupted, scoring seven runs in the seventh inning and eight more in the eighth. In the seventh, Hammond belted a three-run double, Penaflor plated two runs with a single and Inafuku and Mack had run-scoring singles.
 
After Knox scored once in the bottom of the seventh, Grinnell responded in the eighth. Matt Godinsky '16 had a two-run single, while Penaflor, Beecher and Inafuku had one-run singles. Bell knocked in another run on a fielder's choice.
 
In the second game, Mack had three hits – including a double - and Hammond and Beecher two each. John Essig '16 worked six innings on the mound to get the win.
 
Grinnell scored two runs in the first inning on Godinsky's single and Hammond's sacrifice fly, and added four more runs in the third as Inafuku had a two-run single and Beecher and Bell one-run singles.
 
Grinnell made it 8-0 with two more runs in the fourth as Mack had an RBI double and Hammond a one-run single. The Pioneers tacked on another run in the fifth on Takayesu's sacrifice fly.
 
Knox scored twice in both the fifth and sixth innings and again in the seventh.
 
Grinnell travels to Mount Vernon on Saturday to face Cornell College in a twin bill. The first pitch is at noon.