Central roars back to take two baseball games Sunday
JACKSONVILLE, ILLINOIS — A seven-run eighth inning brought the Central College baseball team back against Elmhurst College (Ill.) Sunday afternoon and led to a 10-8 victory.
Central started the season 3-0 by beating Eureka College (Ill.) 10-4 in an early game Sunday. Central had previously beaten Elmhurst 13-5 on Saturday. Central also trailed 2-1 in the fifth inning against Eureka.
“I thought both of the opposing starting pitchers threw well,” coach Casey Klunder said. “We persevered and stuck to the plan and kept moving forward.”
In the Elmhurst game, Central trailed 8-3 heading into the bottom of the eighth. Central responded with six hits and seven runs in that inning, including a trio of 2 RBI doubles from catcher Brenden Mudd (senior, Greenwood Village, Colo., Cheery Creek HS), center fielder Logan McCoy (sophomore, Galva, Alta-Aurelia HS) and right fielder Colton DeRocher (junior, Sioux City, East HS).
Against Elmhurst, left fielder Chase Martin (sophomore, Port St. Lucie, Florida, John Carroll HS) had three hits. In the Eureka game, DeRocher had five RBI, thanks in large part to a three run home run in the sixth inning. McCoy was also 3-for-3 at the plate.
“DeRocher broke that first game open,” Klunder said. “We hadn’t been able to muster much up to that point and he gave us a big boost.”
Caleb Evans (senior, Davenport, Central HS) was the winning pitcher against Eureka, tossing the first six innings as the starter. Chance Dreyer (freshman, Davenport, Assumption HS) picked up the three-inning save in relief.
“Caleb has made a lot of improvement from last year,” Klunder said. “He went to work after last season didn’t go the way he wanted and it paid off today.”
Freshmen Max Steinlage (Cedar Falls) and Mark Kenney (Fennimore, Wis.) limited the Blue Jays to three earned runs through seven innings. Zach DeMarlie (freshman, Milan, Ill., Rock Island HS) retired the only two batters he faced in the eighth inning before Parker Jones (junior, Verona, Wis., Verona Area HS) recorded the save in the ninth inning.
“We had some young arms pitch well there,” Klnder said. “Parker picked up where he left off of last year.”
Central flies to Florida next Saturday for an eight-game spring break trip. The week gets started with a 1 p.m. (EST) game against The College of St. Scholastica (Minn.) in Auburndale.
“It’s easy to over sensationalize things early in the season,” Klunder said. “We know what we need to work on before we go to Florida.”
