VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University baseball team returned to Jerry Blemker Field Saturday afternoon to play the first two games of their four-game Mid-West Athletic Conference series with Illinois Central College.
The Blazers got off to a rocky start and fell in game one 7-3 before falling in game two to the Cougars 9-4.
The weekend conference series did not get off to a great start for the Blazers as Illinois Central opened game one of the day by scoring three runs in the first inning.
VU would get on the board in the second inning after sophomore Blake Heyerly (Monroe, Ind.) got on with a double and came around to score on an RBI single by sophomore Trevor Newman (Fort Wayne, Ind.).
The Cougars immediately got this run back in the third and added another run in the fourth to take a 5-1 lead.
Vincennes would look to battle back in the bottom half of the fourth after freshman Corbin Napier (Indianapolis, Ind.) reached on an error and was driven in on an RBI single by Blake Heyerly, his second hit of the day.
VU would continue to cut into the ICC lead in the fifth with a single by freshman Bradyn Douglas (Frankton, Ind.) and an RBI single by sophomore Jack Robinson (Mooresville, Ind.) to make it a 5-3 game.
This would be as close as the Blazers would get in game one however as the Cougars plated a run in the sixth and added an insurance run in the ninth to hold off VU and pick up the 7-3 game one victory.
Sophomore Josh McCormick (Indianapolis, Ind.) got the start in game one and was able to settle in after a tough first inning, throwing four innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and striking out five.
Sophomore Max Lines (Indianapolis, Ind.) was the first out of the pen for Vincennes, throwing two innings, allowing one unearned run on three hits and striking out two.
Freshman Yancey Edlin (Pekin, Ind.) came in to throw the final three innings in relief, allowing one run on two hits and striking out four.
“Starting pitching and everything else from that avenue just didn’t get it done in game one,” VU Head Baseball Coach Chris Barney said. “We need to get more out of our starter in that situation in a game where they made all of the plays, turned two or three double plays against us. Balls that we barreled up and hit really hard were caught. Things just didn’t drop for us in game one and they had a couple of small hits that fell for them.”
“Illinois Central did a good job and you’ve got to tip your cap to them,” Barney added. “That was their number one arm and today he threw like a number one arm.”
