GREENVILLE, Ill. - The baseball team opened the SLIAC portion of their schedule with a dominating 15-0 seven-inning win over Blackburn on Monday night at Robert E. Smith Field. The Panthers were originally scheduled to play game one of the series at Blackburn, but the field conditions in Carlinville necessitated a move to GU. The Panthers were the visiting team in the contest at home.
After matching goose eggs in the first two innings, the Panthers put runs on the scoreboard with a three-run third inning. GU scored twice when Landon Mokris hit a bases loaded ground ball to the pitcher, and the pitcher threw away the ball trying to get the lead runner at the plate. In addition to Jacob Sutton being safe at home, Tanner Gerdes came around to score from second base.
With Drew Frey on third and Mokris standing on first, Snyder Pennington singled to right field to provide the Panthers with a 3-0 lead.
In the top of the fifth inning, the Panthers added seven runs with RBI singles from Brexton Beard and Rhett Pennington, a three-run triple from George Schneider, and an RBI double off the bat of Mokris.
Sutton provided an RBI triple to left center in the top of the sixth to give GU an 11-0 lead.
The Panthers made the score 15-0 in the top of the seventh with four runs.
S. Pennington posted an RBI single, and a run scored during a wild pitch on a walk to Nathan Eye.
Sutton provided his fourth hit of the day to drive in the 14th run, and Gerdes hit a foul sacrifice fly to left field for the final tally.
GU's pitching was dominant, and Luke Fleener moved to 3-1 with five shutout innings and six strikeouts.
Jaxen Gibson pitched a scoreless sixth inning to lower his season ERA to 0.83 in more than 21 innings, and Jacob Hammer held the Beaver scoreless in the bottom of the seventh.
Sutton finished the game with a perfect 4-for-4 outing at the plate with two runs scored and two RBI.
S. Pennington went 3-for-5 and scored twice while adding two RBI.
Schneider, Mokris, and R. Pennington also had two hits, and Frey, Schneider, Mokris, and Beard scored two runs.
The Panthers (7-9, 1-0 SLIAC) will host Millikin on Wednesday at 5 p.m. before Friday and Saturday's weekend series at home against Westminster.
