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Western Illinois University Athletics

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1
Illinois-Springfield UIS 10-11
14
Winner Western Illinois WIU 5-14
Illinois-Springfield UIS
10-11
1
Final
14
Western Illinois WIU
5-14
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Illinois-Springfield UIS 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 5
Western Illinois WIU 0 6 1 6 0 1 0 0 X 14 10 1

W: Baksha, J.T. (1-2) L: Collins, Gavin (1-3)

Game Recap: Baseball | | WIU Athletic Communications

Leathernecks Take Down Prairie Stars

A three-run home run from Jake Moore highlighted the decisive 14-1 victory.

MACOMB, Ill. - Western Illinois baseball grabbed its first mid-week win of the year with a 14-1 victory over Illinois-Springfield on Wednesday (March 25) at Alfred D. Boyer Stadium. The win improves Western to 5-14 on the season.

Six runs in the second inning and another six during the fourth inning helped propel the Leathernecks to a decisive victory. A three-run home run from Jake Moore in the bottom of the second highlighted the victory. The loss drops UIS to 10-11 on the season.

"Honestly, I say it every year, these are my scariest games," said head coach Ryan Brownlee. "You don't know, mentally, how guys will show up. Last year they gave it to us. We didn't play well. We didn't pitch well. We didn't do anything well last year and they pounded us so we needed to be ready to go. I was very pleased with our approach. Hopefully this win gets us going."

Freshman left-handed pitcher J.T. Baksha made his first start of the season. The Oswego, Illinois native worked efficiently through the first two innings of play, facing seven batters and surrendering just one hit. After being held scoreless and hitless in the first, the Purple and Gold bats came alive.

In the bottom of the second JJ Reimer led the inning off with a walk, followed by a Colton Pogue one-out double down the left field line to put runners on second and third. Mark Garton worked a base on balls to load the bases, and Brent Turner took a pitch off the shoulder to plate the first run of the game. Roman Visintine drove a ball deep to right field that was dropped, scoring Pogue from third for the second run of the game. A sacrifice fly from Payton Jeffers scored Garton, and made it 3-0 Leathernecks. With two runners on and two outs, Moore stepped to the plate and quickly doubled the score with his third home run of the season.

"We threw strikes. J.T. got us off to a good start and we took advantage of their mistakes," said coach Brownlee. "Hopefully that's something that gets us going for the weekend. It's always nice to win mid-week because you get that feel-good feeling for the weekend."

In the top of the third inning the Prairie Stars manufactured their only run of the game. An RBI single from Turner scored Pogue in the bottom half, padding the Leatherneck lead.

The fourth inning brought another onslaught of WIU scoring that took advantage of timely hitting and UIS errors. Adam McGinnis drove a ground ball at the Prairie Stars shortstop, forcing another error and scoring Moore. Garton extended the WIU lead with a one-out, two-run single, scoring Reimer, McGinnis, and Pogue following another error. A Visintine single plated Garton, and a Jeffers base hit scored Turner and capped off a second six-run inning for the Purple and Gold.

With the game out of reach, Erik Maki added a final run in the sixth on a UIS throwing error.

Baksha (1-2) earned the first win of his career. In the predetermined shortened outing the freshman went two innings, allowing no runs on one hit and no walks. A platoon of Western pitchers appeared in relief including Colan Borchers, Carson Cheesman, Robert Nunn, Pete Minella, Sam Cottingham-Beard, and Nick Smith combining for no runs on five hits and eight strikeouts.

Moore led the WIU outburst at the plate going 2-of-3, scoring two runs, and driving in three. Chris Tschida reached base on a walk to extend his reached-base streak to 11 games. Jeffers went 1-of-3 to extend his hitting streak to nine. Pogue scored a career-high three runs with Turner, Garton, Jeffers, and Visintine collecting multiple RBI. 

Western Illinois returns to Alfred D. Boyer Stadium this Friday (March 27) to open a three-game Summit League set against North Dakota State. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. with games on Saturday and Sunday starting at noon. Live audio and video will be available at GoLeathernecks.com/watch with live updates available on Twitter at @WIU_Baseball.
 
  
 
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