BLOOMINGTON, Ill. - The RU baseball team hit the road Tuesday night to face the Titans of Illinois Wesleyan University in its final road game of the season. The game remained close for much of the evening until Illinois Wesleyan used a four-run sixth inning to put some distance between itself and Rockford. The Regents would answer back with a few runs of their own but ultimately it was the Titans who came out on top with an 11-3 victory.
Freshman pitcher Taggart Venegas (Spring Valley, Ill.) did a nice job holding the Titans down through his first five innings. During those 5 innings, Venegas surrendered just 3 runs and kept his team within striking distance.
Rockford scored its first run of the game in the fifth to pull back within two runs. Junior Seth Dascher (Lena, Ill.) got the inning started on a positive note with a leadoff single back up the middle. Dascher then stole second base and later scored off a Cole Logemann (Lena, Ill.) single to make it a 3-1 game. Logemann would follow suit with a stolen base of his own to get himself into scoring position with just one out. Unfortunately Rockford was unable to come up with the big hit as Illinois Wesleyan retired the next two batters to get out of the inning.
The Titans then went on to score 4 runs in the sixth and 2 more in both the seventh and eighth innings to put basically put the game out of reach. Despite the onslaught of runs, Rockford continued to fight scoring 2 runs of its own in the seventh inning. Sophomore Patrick O'Malley (Elk Grove, Ill.) began the inning with a leadoff single. Two batters later, Robert Smith (Bartlett, Ill.) ripped a single through the left side of the infield giving Rockford runners on first and second with just one out. Following a Cole Logemann walk to load the bases, Kraemer Brandt (Elk Grove, Ill.) drove in the first run of the inning with a sacrifice fly. Rockford's final run of the game came one batter later off a Devin Standard (Monroe Center, Ill.) RBI single back up the middle. However it would not be enough as Rockford fell 11-3.
The RU baseball team concludes the regular season on Friday, May 1 at home against Marian University. First pitch of the doubleheader is set for 3:00 p.m. at Aviators Stadium.
