GRINNELL, Iowa – After being limited to three runs in Sunday's home baseball opener against Monmouth College, the Grinnell College bats caught fire – and then some - in the second game.
Grinnell ripped 17 hits and rallied for 14 runs over the final four innings to record a 16-13 win over the Fighting Scots at Pioneer Park. That helped salvage a split as Grinnell lost the opener 10-3 in its first game at home in a year and 10 months.
Grinnell's 17-hit attack in the second game was sparked by a four-hit performance by
Quinton McNitt '21 and three-hit efforts from
Jared Booth '21 and
Nate L'esperance '23.
Riley Guieb had a home run, his second of the day, while McNitt, Booth, L'esperance,
Sean Richardson '23 and Matt Inaba '22 all had doubles.
Will Richman '22, the second of five Grinnell pitchers, got the win. Another key pitcher was
Evan Borberg '24, who in his collegiate mound debut got Grinnell out of a jam in the eighth inning by inducing two key outs with the bases loaded.
Grinnell fell behind 3-0 before Inaba got the hosts on the board in the second with a sacrifice fly to center. After Monmouth made it 5-1,
Brock Weirather '21 hit another sacrifice fly to make it a three-run game.
The Pioneers erupted for five runs in the fifth on an RBI double by McNitt, error, RBI single from Richardson and two-run single by Inaba. Monmouth rallied in the sixth with three runs to retake the lead, but L'esperance belted a three-run double to left-center in the sixth, Richardson added an RBI double and
Justin Williams '21 a run-scoring single to make it 12-8 in favor of the hosts.
The Fighting Scots rallied to within 12-10, but Inaba hit an RBI double in the eighth and Guieb smashed a three-run homer to left to put the Pioneers up by six. Monmouth got three runs in the ninth before the hosts finished off the win.
Grinnell opened the scoring in the first game by getting a run on an error in the second inning, but Monmouth then built a 5-1 lead.
Ian Brown '24 scored on a wild pitch in the sixth and Guieb slapped a solo homer to left in the seventh to bring the Pioneers within 5-3. But Monmouth used a grand slam homer in the eighth and RBI single in the ninth to secure the win.
Weirather struck out four batters over six innings while suffering the pitching loss. Grinnell is 2-2 in the Midwest Conference South Division and overall, while Monmouth moved to 6-2 in the league and 8-4 overall.
The Pioneers are slated to play at Knox College next Saturday, starting at noon.
