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Western Illinois University Athletics

Sam Cottingham-Beard
WIU Visual Productions Center
1
St. Ambrose SAUBB 18-22
9
Winner Western Illinois WIU 10-20
St. Ambrose SAUBB
18-22
1
Final
9
Western Illinois WIU
10-20
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
St. Ambrose SAUBB 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 5 2
Western Illinois WIU 1 1 0 0 3 0 0 4 X 9 11 1

W: Cottingham-Beard, Sam (1-0) L: Sweeney, Jim (1-2)

Game Recap: Baseball | | WIU Athletic Communications

Leathernecks Defeat St. Ambrose

Sam Cottingham-Beard goes a career-high six innings; Roman Visintine gets three hits

PHOTO GALLERY

MACOMB, Ill. – Sam Cottingham-Beard pitched a career-high six innings and Roman Visintine matched a career-best of three hits as Western Illinois defeated St. Ambrose 9-1 on Wednesday afternoon (April 13) at Alfred D. Boyer Stadium.
 
Visintine missed by inches on a home run to lead off the bottom of the first, settling for a triple. He scored on a groundout from Colton Pogue. In the second, Nathan Pollock started off the inning getting hit by a pitch. He went to third on a throwing error then scored on Visintine's sacrifice fly.
 
Western plated three runs in the fifth, loading the bases with no one out. Pogue drew a leadoff walk, Mark Garton singled to put runners on the corners and Nick Schrader walked. Conner Currier hit a deep fly ball to center to score one run. Schrader stole second to put two runners in scoring position. Pollock picked up his first RBI of the season on a grounder, and on the play Schrader went to third. The throw from first baseman Greg Wymer went into left field and Schrader scored to make it 5-0.
 
Zach Hart led off the sixth with a double and scored during the next at-bat off Kevin Zanger's single to make it 5-1.
 
Steve McShane singled to start the eighth and he went to second on Visintine's bunt hit. Both runners stole a base to get into scoring position. Pogue lined a RBI single. Deion Thompson, playing in his first game in nearly seven weeks, lined a RBI single during the next at-bat. Schrader hit his second double of the game, scoring two, for a 9-1 advantage.
 
Visintine matched his career-high of three hits. He also stole three bases in the contest, after coming into the game with just six stolen bases in his career.
 
"We were a lot more centered in, part of that was being able to practice on Tuesday. You're always a lot sharper a day after a practice," said head coach Ryan Brownlee. "We had a good practice yesterday, the guys had a lot of energy. We talked about it yesterday, it's important to play well in the midweek games because it gives you some momentum heading into the weekend."
 
Garton and Schrader added two hits apiece as Western out-hit St. Ambrose 11-5. Thompson started in all four of his appearances in February and had three extra-base hits in those games (double, two home runs). After missing 25 games, Thompson returned and finished 1-for-2 with a run scored and RBI.
 
"I'm happy for Deion. After he got hurt early it took him so long to come back," said head coach Ryan Brownlee. "He's a guy coming into the spring we thought would play a lot. He's got a great mentality. Even when he was hurt he still showed up and worked. You can build around guys like that."
 
Cottingham-Beard (1-0) went 6.0 innings, allowing one run on five hits. He did not allow a walk and fanned five, his second-highest career strikeout total (six last year against St. Ambrose).
 
"Sam did a great job. His last three outings have been really good. That's more of what we saw out of him last year. He got a lot of innings for us last year as a freshman. It's important to get a quality start and he gave us one today," said Brownlee.
 
Colan Borchers pitched a scoreless seventh inning. Dave Dobrinich made his pitching debut and went two-thirds of an inning in the eighth. Jordan Pannell, Nate Westfahl and Robert Nunn closed out the game.
 
Jim Sweeney (1-2) suffered the loss for the Bees. He allowed five runs (three earned) on four hits in five innings.
 
The Leathernecks finish the first half of the Summit League schedule this weekend playing host to Fort Wayne. This weekend is also the Alumni Reunion for Leatherneck Baseball. First pitch on Friday is 3 p.m. with a 1 p.m. first pitch on Saturday and Sunday.
 
 
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