MONMOUTH, Ill. – After falling in the opener of Sunday's twin bill, Grinnell College's baseball team bounced back to defeat Monmouth College 6-3 in Midwest Conference action.
 
Nathan Zaroban '18 collected three hits for Grinnell and Niko Takayesu '17 had two as Grinnell improved to 6-2 in the MWC and 12-9 overall. The Fighting Scots, who won the opener 10-4, dipped to 2-2 in the league and 8-9 in all games.
 
Takayesu and Andrew Shults '19 each had triples for Grinnell and Benjamin Wong '18 added a double.
 
Ben Binversie '17, the third of three Pioneer pitchers, got the win to improve to 3-0. He struck out four in 3-2/3 innings of scoreless work.
 
Ben Spencer '20 opened the scoring for Grinnell in the first inning with a sacrifice fly to right field. Monmouth tied the game in the third, but the Pioneers got two runs back in the fifth when Shults hit an RBI triple to right-center and scored on a passed ball.
 
Monmouth tied the game at 3-all with solo runs in the fifth and sixth innings before Grinnell went ahead to stay in the seventh on Sam Galanek's '18 sacrifice fly to right.
 
Grinnell added two insurance runs in the eighth when Wong hit an RBI double to left-center and Takayesu followed with a run-scoring single to center.
 
In the opener, Brad Weaver '18 led the offensive attack with two doubles.  Julian Cabrera '19, Zaroban and Spencer each had one double.
 
The Fighting Scots got all the runs they needed when they struck for four in the first frame. Zaroban's RBI double to left in the second inning gave the Pioneers their first run, and Takayesu lifted an RBI single to right in the fifth to make it 4-2.
 
Monmouth gave itself some breathing room with three runs in the sixth and two more in the seventh.
 
The Pioneers had solo runs in the eighth and ninth via an error and wild pitch.
 
Andrew Mack '18 suffered the pitching loss for Grinnell.
 
Grinnell travels to Galesburg, Ill., Thursday to play a doubleheader against Knox College.