GRINNELL, Iowa – A stunning pitching performance in game one and equally dazzling batting performance in the second game worked their magic as Grinnell College's baseball team swept Illinois College Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Park.
First-year
Sam LaMotte '20 pitched like a veteran in the opener, tossing a complete-game three-hitter while striking out four during Grinnell's 4-0 victory.
In the second game,
Matt Hammond '17 belted two homers – including a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning – to send Grinnell to a 15-3 win.
Grinnell is now 2-0 in the Midwest Conference and 8-7 overall, while the Blueboys fell to 3-11 in all games and 0-2 in the league.
The second game was all but decided in the first inning when Grinnell pounded out eight runs on three hits and two Blueboy errors. Hammond had a solo homer to left,
Niko Takayesu '17 walked with the bases loaded and
Sam Galanek '18 was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Grinnell added a run in the second on a Takayesu single to make it 9-0. After Illinois College scored in the third, the Pioneers put up a run in the fifth on Hammond's RBI single.
The Blueboys scored twice in the sixth before Grinnell went to work in the bottom of the seventh.
Teague Towner '17 walked and
Benjamin Wong '18 and Takayesu each singled to load the bases.
Andrew Shults '19 then singled to right to push across a run before Hammond blasted his grand slam homer over the left-field fence to win it.
Shults and Hammond each had three hits in the game, Takayesu added two and
Carson Gampell '20 had a double.
Noah Mathews '17 was the winning pitcher for Grinnell, striking out three in six innings.
In the opener, Grinnell broke a scoreless tie in the fourth when
Brad Weaver '18 delivered a two-run homer to left. Galanek had an RBI double to left-center in the fifth and
Nathan Zaroban '18 hit a solo homer to left in the eighth.
The teams meet again Sunday at Pioneer Park for a doubleheader starting at 9 a.m. That is an hour earlier than the previously-scheduled 10 a.m. start.
