Western Illinois drops series finale to IPFW

MACOMB, Ill. - The Western Illinois Baseball team dropped the rubber match of a four-game series to IPFW by a 5-3 score Sunday, April 18 at Alfred D. Boyer Stadium.

The Fighting Leathernecks (9-23, 2-6 Summit) dropped three of four games to the Mastodons (7-26, 3-5 Summit) over the weekend. It was the second straight Summit League series defeat for Western Illinois.

IPFW jumped out to an early lead and never looked back, shutting down Western Illinois hitters the rest of the way. The Mastodons scored first on Joel Washko's two-run single in the top of the second inning to take a 2-0 lead.

"I really don't think all our guys came out ready to play today," Western Illinois head coach Mike Villano said. "We have to get a better effort from everyone in order to win these kinds of games, to win any games. We didn't get what we needed as a whole from our team today."

The Mastodons tacked on another run on Brett Clark's RBI-double in the top of the fifth inning and would put two more on the board in the eighth inning to make the score 5-0.

The Leatherneck bats, which had been silent the majority of the day, came to life in the bottom of the eighth when Cole Waddell lined a shot over the left field wall for a two-run homer, his third of the season, to make the score 5-2.

"Cole had himself a pretty good day," Villano said. "He was able to get a couple hits and had the big home run, but we just didn't play well enough as a team to get the win."

John Sneegas tossed a scoreless ninth inning to keep the deficit at three heading in to the bottom of the ninth. Bryan Jordan and Rich Mascheri strung together back-to-back hits to start off the inning to give Western Illinois two men on with no outs.

Chris Giglio grounded in to a double play in the next at bat, but Jordan would score from third to cut the lead to 5-3 before Jason Summers flied out to left to end the game.

Travis Pedersen (0-1) took the loss in his first career-start. He allowed three runs on four hits in four innings of work. Pedersen walked three and struck out three.

Lucas Kesterson (1-5) picked up his first win, allowing just two runs on five hits in 7.2 innings pitched. He walked two and struck out three.

Brandon Knowling allowed one run in 1.1 innings to pick up his first save of the season. He allowed three hits and did not record a walk or a strikeout.

Sneegas and Austin Brough each tossed 1.1 scoreless relief innings for the Leathernecks while Waddell and Mascheri each picked up two hits.

Dan Dispensa extended his hitting streak to 13 games by finishing the day 1-for-4. Western totaled eight hits and committed two errors while the Mastodons picked up nine hits and did not commit an error.

The Leathernecks return to action in a midweek, non-conference matchup at Iowa this Tuesday, April 20 at 6:30 p.m. before heading to Oral Roberts for the first Summit League road trip of the season April 23-25.

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Players Mentioned

#34 Rich Mascheri: LHP/OF; 5' 10"; Junior; L/L

#15 Bryan Jordan: OF/IF; 5' 11"; Junior; R/R

#25 Austin Brough: LHP; 6' 4"; Senior; R/L

#3 Cole Waddell: IF; 5' 9"; Redshirt; R/R

#22 John Sneegas: LHP; 5' 11"; Senior; L/L

#33 Travis Pedersen: RHP; 6' 3"; Junior; R/R

#11 Chris Giglio: IF; 6' 0"; Junior; R/R

#24 Jason Summers: C/1B; 6' 1"; Senior; R/R

Players Mentioned

#34 Rich Mascheri
: 5' 10"; Junior; L/L
: LHP/OF

#15 Bryan Jordan
: 5' 11"; Junior; R/R
: OF/IF

#25 Austin Brough
: 6' 4"; Senior; R/L
: LHP

#3 Cole Waddell
: 5' 9"; Redshirt; R/R
: IF

#22 John Sneegas
: 5' 11"; Senior; L/L
: LHP

#33 Travis Pedersen
: 6' 3"; Junior; R/R
: RHP

#11 Chris Giglio
: 6' 0"; Junior; R/R
: IF

#24 Jason Summers
: 6' 1"; Senior; R/R
: C/1B