O'FALLON, Ill. - The baseball team opened the "home" portion of their 2022 season schedule with a doubleheader sweep over Illinois Wesleyan that was hosted at Family Sports Park. Greenville took an 8-7 win with a literal "walk-off" victory in game one and then hung on for a 2-1 win in game two.
In game one, the Panthers rallied for two runs in the bottom of the seventh to erase a one-run deficit and earn the win. Greenville's final run came with two outs when Blake Duncan walked to push across Tanner Gerdes for the winning run.
IWU led early in the game with three runs in the top of the first, but a two-run frame from the Panthers in the bottom of the first highlighted by a Logan Garrick RBI single and Mark Islas run-scoring double made it a 3-2 game.
In the top of the third, IWU extended their lead to 4-2 and made it a 5-2 ballgame in the top of the fifth.
Four runs from Greenville in the bottom of the fifth gave GU a short-lived one run lead. During GU's fifth inning rally, the squad received RBI singles from Landon Mokris, Gerdes, and Dustin Sutton as well as a wild pitch that allowed another run to score to make the score 6-5 in Greenville's favor.
The Titans retook the lead in the top of the sixth with two runs, but the Panthers came from behind to post two runs in the bottom of the seventh for the win.
In the Panthers half of the seventh, Mokris led off by getting hit by a pitch, and Garrick sacrificed him to second base. After a line-out from Islas, Gerdes was hit by a pitch, putting runners on first and second with two outs.
Sutton delivered an RBI single to tie the game, and after Garrett Schmitz was walked intentionally to load the bases, Duncan worked a walk that gave the Panthers the win.
Sutton went 3-for-4 at the plate with two RBI, and Garrick finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI.
Braden Maltbie started on the mound and worked four innings, allowing four runs on five hits. Luke Fleener permitted three runs on four hits in 1.1 innings, but Dylan Boehm earned the win with 1.2 scoreless innings.
After the slugfest in game one, the teams played a more crisp second game, ending with a 2-1 victory for Greenville.
Jaxen Gibson pitched six innings, only allowing one earned run on seven hits, and Trent Harris picked up the save with a scoreless inning.
The Panthers scored a run in the second inning with an sacrifice fly by Drew Frey, and Duncan provided an RBI single in the third inning.
IWU started the seventh inning with three straight hits to score a run, but Harris induced a double play to erase one of the runners who reached safely, and he struck out the Titans final batter to give GU the win.
Duncan finished game two with a 2-for-3 performance at the plate.
The Panthers (2-3) travel to Millikin for a game on Wednesday afternoon at 4 p.m.
