DECATUR, Ill. - Millikin Baseball hosted the St. Norbert College Green Nights on Saturday, March 7 at the Workman Family Baseball Field for their 2020 regular season home opener. The Big Blue would defeat St. Norbert 7-0 to improve to 3-4 on the season.
Millikin put runs on the board early, scoring one in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI single to left field by
Mason McGahey that would score
Brent Beals from third.
The game would remain 1-0 for the next five innings until
Nick Black would come to the plate with
Andrew Auton in scoring position on third base. Black would hit a sacrifice fly to center field that would score Auton to give the Big Blue a 2-0 lead after the sixth inning.
An inning later,
Andrew Auton would drive in three on an RBI triple deep to center field that would clear the bases, scoring
Kyle Kane,
Frank Bryan and
Brent Beals and bringing the score to 5-0 after seven innings of play.
The final two runs of the game would be scored in the bottom of the eighth inning, with the first coming from an infield groundout to the shortstop hit by
Gabe Soria that would score
Nick Black from third. A batter later,
Brent Beals would step up to the plate with
Ethan Current on second and
Jackson Chase on third. Beals would ground out to the third baseman, scoring Chase from third to bring the score to the final score of 7-0.
Adam Zuk would pick up his first win of the season on the mound for Millikin, allowing no runs on four hits, striking out eight in 7.0 innings pitched. St. Norbert would start Nick Klavekoske, who would earn a loss throwing 5.0 innings, allowing one runs on four hits with nine strikeouts on the day.
Andrew Auton led the charge on offense against St. Norbert, going 1-2 on the day, driving in three runs on an RBI triple. Auton's triple would be the only extra-base hit in the game.
Brent Beals added to the strength at the plate for the Big Blue, going 3-4 and scoring two of the seven runs in the game.
The Big Blue will continue their opening weekend on Sunday, March 8 as they face Loras College at 1:00 PM and Knox College at 4:00 at the Workman Family Baseball Field.
