Grinnell College Athletics

GRINNELL, Iowa - In a season full of milestones, two more were achieved with one victory Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Park.

Grinnell shut down Illinois College by a 16-3 score before a large home crowd, giving the Pioneers their first-ever Midwest Conference Tournament crown in 16 trips to the event.

Additionally, the mercy-rule victory provided Grinnell coach Tim Hollibaugh with his 500th career victory. See related story here.

With the tourney title comes a trip to the NCAA Division III Tournament, a first for the program. The pairings show will be on NCAA.com at 11 a.m. Central time Monday and reveal where the Pioneers head for regionals. That event is late next week.

Grinnell improved to 25-16 with the victory, its second-highest win total in program history.

In beating Illinois College for the second time in as many days, the Pioneers showed they meant business from the start with a four-run outburst in the top of the first inning. Grinnell outhit the Blueboys 15-6 and had a dominating trio of pitchers combine for five strikeouts.

Connor Goodson '26 pounded out four hits for Grinnell, while Connor Pink '29 and Stuart Cash '27 added three apiece. Cash continued his power display at the tournament, beginning with a booming grand slam to center in the top of the first. Illinois College, which finished its season with a 27-18 mark, scored twice in the bottom of the first to cut the lead in half.

Mitch Baek's '29 bases-loaded walk in the third made it 5-2, and Nikolas Ruden '26 hit an RBI double to left and Goodson a run-scoring single to left-center to make it 7-2. In the fifth, Jacob Gaynor '28 knocked in a run with a double to right-center and Pink hit an RBI single to center to make it 9-2.

After the Blueboys scored in the bottom of the fifth, Goodson belted a solo homer to left-center in the sixth to make it 10-3. The Pioneers went wild in the seventh with six runs, with Pink starting things off with an RBI double down the left-field line and Joe Chanis '27 adding a run-scoring single through the left side. Wyatt Raymond '28 followed with a three-run homer to left and Cash slugged a solo shot over the left-field fence.

In the bottom of the seventh, Grinnell pitcher Jakob Runkel '26 gave up a single before getting a fielder's choice, flyout and strikeout to send the Pioneers into celebration.

Grinnell starting pitcher Jackson Gutta '26 struck out one batter in two innings and winning pitcher David Haas '29 fanned two over the next three innings. Runkel fanned two in closing out the game.