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5
Fort Wayne FW 3-13
6
Winner Western Illinois WIU 2-13
Fort Wayne FW
3-13
5
Final
6
Western Illinois WIU
2-13
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
Fort Wayne FW 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 1 0 5 12 2
Western Illinois WIU 1 0 0 2 1 2 0 0 X 6 9 4

W: Koch, Ian (1-1) L: Jake Weber (0-2) S: Cottingham-Beard, Sam (1)

Game Recap: Baseball | | WIU Athletic Communications

Baseball Holds off Mastodons for 6-5 victory

Drue Galassi hit his team-leading third home run and Sam Cottingham-Beard shuts the door for his first career save

MACOMB, Ill. – Western Illinois used a home run from Drue Galassi and scoreless relief from Sam Cottingham-Beard to record a 6-5 victory over Fort Wayne on Friday afternoon (March 17). It marked the home and Summit League opener for the Leathernecks (2-13 overall, 1-0 Summit League).
 
Western took a 6-3 lead in the sixth inning thanks to Galassi's team-leading third home run of the year. Conner Currier started the two-out rally with a single, then the sophomore right fielder followed with a shot over the right field fence.
 
Fort Wayne (3-13, 0-1) chipped away at Western's lead, scoring a run in the seventh and eighth inning to make it 6-5. The Mastodons threatened to tie it in later in the eighth and also the ninth.
 
Facing the tying run at third and two down in the eighth, Cottingham-Beard got a strikeout to end Fort Wayne's threat. To start the ninth, a single and two-base fielding error put the tying run 90 feet away with no one down. The junior right-hander got a called third strike, groundout to short, and another called third strike to earn his first collegiate save.
 
Johnathan Fleek opened the scoring with a RBI single in the first. Down 2-1 in the fourth, Western scored a run on a bases loaded ground ball double play. Galassi followed with a RBI single up the middle for a 3-2 lead.
 
Fort Wayne tied it again in the fifth, but in Western's half of the frame Roman Visintine delivered a RBI single.
 
Ian Koch (1-1) earned his first win of the season, allowing three earned runs in 6.0 innings of work. He walked two and struck out two. Nate Westfahl worked 1.2 innings of relief.
 
Cottingham-Beard increased his strikeout total to 20 in 12.2 innings this season.
 
Galassi matched his career-high of three RBI, set earlier this year. Fleek and Adam McGinnis joined Galassi with two hits in the game.
 
Jackson Boyce led FW with three hits. Jake Weber (0-2) allowed four runs on six hits in five innings of work.
 
Game two of the series is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday (March 18).
 
 
 
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