GRINNELL, Iowa – When you combine great pitching and hitting in a game, good things will happen.
Grinnell College's baseball team proved that point Sunday by blasting Knox College 11-1 in the opening game of a twin bill at Pioneer Park.
The Pioneers ripped out 11 hits and
Sam LaMotte '20 tossed a complete-game six-hitter while issuing just one earned run and fanning two batters. Offensively,
Jack Hager '20 nearly hit for the cycle with a triple, double and single. The triple was the sixth of his career, tied for fourth-best in Pioneer history.
Brady LeSher '19 added a double and single,
Riley Guieb '21 and
Vince Reilly '19 each singled twice,
Noah Daniel '19 blasted a homer and
Julian Cabrera '19 had a double.
Knox scored in the top of the second, but then it was all Grinnell. Reilly hit a sacrifice fly to center in the bottom of the inning and Daniel bashed a solo homer to left. In the third, Hager hit an RBI infield single and
Cooper King '21 scored on an error. LeSher added a run on an error in the fourth and Reilly had an RBI single to center in the fifth to make it 6-1.
In the seventh, Reilly had an RBI single to right,
Kory Czajkowski '20 was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, Daniel walked with the bases loaded and LeSher hit a two-run single to end the game via the mercy rule.
Brock Weirather '21 was sharp on the mound for Grinnell in the second game, a 2-1 Knox win. He gave up five hits and fanned two batters while not issuing a run in eight innings. Offensively, Cabrera had two of Grinnell's six hits.
Cabrera put the Pioneers on the board in the fifth with an RBI single to center that scored Guieb. Grinnell made that 1-0 lead stick until Knox scored twice in the ninth.
Grinnell is now 5-3 in the Midwest Conference and 11-13 overall, while Knox moved to 3-5 in the MWC and 6-19 in all games. Grinnell will be gone next weekend with doubleheaders at the University of Chicago and Beloit College.
