MACOMB, Ill. - Drew Laidig belted a pair of home runs to pace the Western Illinois offense to a 12-8 victory over Coe College, Thursday afternoon.
A five-run second inning erased a 3-1 deficit for the Leathernecks (11-26) as
Lorenzo Gallaga ripped a one out single to bring in
Jared Wolf, who had singled, with the go-ahead run.
Kenny Price and
Dan Johnson led the inning off with back-to-back doubles.
Cole Waddell picked up his second and third RBI of the game on a double down the left field line to make it 6-3.
Western got a single run in the bottom of the third and
Drew Laidig hit his first homer of the day in the fourth with two away, stretching the advantage to 8-3.
The Kohawks (21-15) did not go away quietly as they plated a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth to cut their deficit to two runs.
The only scoreless inning for the Leathernecks came in the fifth and they managed two runs, one of which came on a
James Bina single, in the sixth.
Wolf led off the eighth with a bunt single and after stealing second and moving to third on a
Tyler Metcalf fly ball, he was able to score on a wild pitch.
Coe touched up relief pitcher
Austin Brough for a two-run homer in the top of the eighth to make it 11-8.
Laidig launched a homer to center leading of the home half of the eighth, to close out the scoring.
“Laidig had a great day today,” said Western Illinois head coach
Stan Hyman. “He’s been seeing the ball really well lately. It was great to see Bina get three hits because he’s been getting robbed all year with solid contact. Wolf also got after it today with three hits on his part.”
Waddell smacked his first home run of the season with one away in the top of the first to give Western the early 1-0 lead. The Kohawks responded with three in the second, before the Leathernecks rallied in the bottom half to take the lead.
“The offense finally clicked today,” Hyman stated. “I thought we had a lot of quality at-bats today, and that’s something we need to carry over into the Southern Utah series. A lot of times you can’t control the result, but you can control the quality of the work that you do.”
Ryan Schmidt (1-0) picked up the win by going six innings and striking out for while giving up six runs. Working a pair of innings was Brough, who only gave up the two runs on the homer. The final inning on the bump went to
Chris Fuchs who gave up a hit and a walk.
“The pitching wasn’t the greatest today for us,” Hyman added. “What I was most pleased with today was our defense. The wind today made it difficult but we got through it and made all the plays.
“We have to be able to put all aspects of the game together this weekend,” Hyman continued. “It’s a do-or-die series and we know it.”
Western kicks off a pivotal four-game Summit League series with Southern Utah, at 3:00 p.m., Friday, from Alfred D. Boyer Stadium.
Courtesy: Adam Sacasa/Western Illinois Athletics
