Baseball tied for final SLIAC tourney bid with split at Blackburn

Published: April 13, 2021

CARLINVILLE, Ill. -- The baseball team needed to keep winning series as they wrap up their push to the SLIAC baseball tournament in Greenville later this season, and they moved into a tie for the fourth position in the tournament with a split of their games against Blackburn.

Game 1 Recap

Thirteen hits weren't enough for Greenville as they lost a 12-11 slugfest at Blackburn.

Nate Miller had a busy day at the plate, collecting two extra-base hits. He singled in the first inning, doubled in the fifth inning, and tripled in the seventh inning.

Blackburn jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first.

Greenville cut the lead to 3-2 in the top of the third after a sacrifice fly by Shane Olmsted and an RBI ground-out by Jesse Getz.

Blackburn got one of the runs back immediately in the bottom of the third.

Dathan Berning's fourth inning homer made the score 4-3, but Blackburn tacked on four runs for an 8-3 lead.

Greenville's bats awakened in the fifth inning as Mike Hardin hit a three-run homer and Trevor Montgomery produced an RBI single.

The Panthers tied the game 8-8 in the sixth on an RBI single by Danny Strohm.

Blackburn regained the lead with a run in the sixth.

In Greenville's half of the seventh inning, the Panthers took an 11-9 with Miller's RBI triple, a run-scoring groundout by Travis Ralls, and an RBI double from Montgomery.

Blackburn scored three runs on three singles in the seventh off of Panther hurler Austin Marsh.

Game 2 Recap

The Panthers continued to pile up the runs on Saturday, scoring 13 runs over the last three innings as they picked up a 15-4 win.

Blackburn took the early lead with a run in the bottom of the second.

Greenville tied the game 1-1 in the top of the third with Hardin's RBI single.

The Panthers took a 2-1 lead in the fourth after Getz's RBI single, but Blackburn tacked on two runs to regain the lead.

Greenville's fifth inning saw them score four times. Miller executed a perfect squeeze play, and Ralls added a sacrifice fly. Olmsted followed with a two-run homer to give Greenville a 6-3 lead.

The Panthers scored five runs in the sixth on an RBI double by Danny Strohm, a two-run double by Trevor Montgomery, and a two-run triple by Shane Olmsted.

Olmsted racked up four RBIs on two hits for the Panthers.

Phillip Reedy got the win for the Panthers. He allowed four runs over 6 1/3 innings. Reedy struck out three, walked two, and gave up 13 hits.

The Panthers (16-19, 11-7 SLIAC) travel to St. Louis to face Fontbonne on Wednesday night in a doubleheader.

Baseball tied for final SLIAC tourney bid with split at Blackburn

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