Galesburg, IL – The Prairie Fire continued their winning ways with a doubleheader sweep of Illinois College on Senior Day at Blodgett Field.

Knox posted its first shutout of the season with a 3-0 victory in the first game on Sunday.  The Prairie Fire won the finale 5-4 on a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Knox (21-9, 13-3 MWC South) has won nine of its last 10 games, including four straight. 

Coach Jami Isaacson's 2013 team also set two new all-time Knox baseball marks.  The squad's 21 wins are the most in a season in the history of the program, surpassing the previous high of 20 victories by the 1997 team.  In addition, the Prairie Fire's 13 conference wins topped the 12 league games won by both the 1980 and 1992 teams.

Three Knox pitchers combined to blank IC on five hits in game one of the twinbill. 

Junior Paul Mills (Moline, IL, Moline) started the contest and tossed 4 2/3 shutout innings.  He allowed four hits, walked one, and struck out five in a no-decision. 

Junior Bryan Leslie (Richmond, IL, Richmond-Burton) and first-year Mitch Weissenhofer (Homewood, IL, Marian Catholic) pitched the remaining 4 1/3 innings.  The duo gave up just one hit and issued one walk while striking out two.  Leslie (1-0) earned his first win of the season while Weissenhofer picked up the save, his first.

The Prairie Fire scored all the runs they would need with two in the bottom of the fourth inning.  The first was courtesy of an RBI double by senior Kyle Walenga (San Francisco, CA, Waldorf).  Walenga then came around to score on a single by first-year Blake Newberg (Moline, IL, Rock Island Alleman) for a 2-0 lead.

Knox scored the final run of the game in the eighth inning when junior Erik Smoy (Hoffman Estates, IL, Hoffman Estates) singled home junior Phil Tallman (Park Ridge, IL, Maine South) for a 3-0 advantage.

Nate Jones (2-5) took the hard luck loss.  He tossed eight innings and surrendered two earned runs with one strikeout.

The Prairie Fire had eight hits.  Tallman and Smoy led the way with two apiece.

After leading through four innings of the nightcap, Knox found itself trailing for the first time in the doubleheader when Illinois College went on top 4-3 with a run in the top of the seventh.

The Blueboys cut down an attempt by the Prairie Fire to score on a single in the bottom of the seventh inning.  Knox had a promising start to the eighth inning with a single, but a pick-off and back-to-back strikeouts kept IC (13-18, 7-9 MWC South) on top by a run.

Illinois College had a chance to add an insurance run in the top of the ninth with a runner on third with only one out.  Junior Dustin Armstrong (Cincinnati, OH, Country Day), who took the mound for the Prairie Fire in the ninth, shut the door on the Blueboys.  He got the next two batters to ground out – setting the stage for a thrilling bottom of the ninth inning.

Smoy led off with a single and sophomore Michael Bohnhoff (Omaha, NE, Mt. Michael Benedictine) – in a pinch hitting role – walked, ending the day for IC southpaw reliever Zack Hanlon. 

The Blueboys brought in Nick Visconti and junior Michael O'Connell (Park Ridge, IL, Maine South) greeted him with a single.  Walenga made it four straight batters to reach base when he singled in Smoy to tie the game at 4-4.  Visconti retired the next two hitters and had one more to get to force extra innings.  The batter Visconti had to get out to keep the game going was Tallman, who stepped up to the plate with four hits in the contest.  Tallman won the battle with a single that drove in O'Connell for a walk-off victory.

Visconti (0-3) was saddled with the loss while Armstrong (3-1) received the win.

Knox took an early 2-0 lead when senior Ryan Hoffman (Sugar Grove, IL, Marmion Academy) doubled home Smoy and junior Jackson White (Grayslake, IL, Grayslake Central) in the first inning.  The Prairie Fire added a run in the bottom of the second when an IC throwing error on a fielder's choice allowed senior Michael Schroeder (Glenview, IL, Glenbrook South) to score.

IC held Knox scoreless until the ninth inning while trimming the deficit to 3-2 with a pair of runs in the top of the third inning.  The Blueboys tied the game at 3-3 with a run in the fifth and took a 4-3 lead on an RBI single in the seventh inning.

Tallman led the Prairie Fire offense with five hits.  Smoy got on base four times with a hit and three intentional walks.  Walenga added three hits and Schroeder had two.

Knox has a chance to add to its win total with two more non-conference games on Tuesday at Millikin University.  The Big Blue (8-25) play their last two games of the season against the Prairie Fire.  Millikin has lost five straight going into the doubleheader with Knox.  The first game begins at 3:30 p.m.  Live stats will be available at http://www.sidearmstats.com/millikin/baseball/scoreboard.aspx

Knox won the Midwest Conference South Division and is the #1 seed from the South in the Midwest Conference Tournament.   MWC North Division champ and #1 seed Ripon College hosts the tournament May 10 and 11.  Defending MWC Champion St. Norbert College is the #2 seed from the North and Grinnell College is the South Division's #2 seed.

The conference tournament begins with the  Prairie Fire playing St. Norbert (24-11, 12-4 MWC North) on May 10 at 9:00 a.m. at nearby Marian University in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.  Knox lost to the Green Knights 3-1 in the opening game of the 2012 MWC Tournament at William Penn University.  St. Norbert swept through the tourney to win the MWC title and earn a spot in the NCAA Division III Championship.

Ripon (20-13, 14-2 MWC North) meets Grinnell (13-19, 8-8 MWC South) in the other game, which also starts at 9:00 a.m., at Francis Field on the Ripon campus.

All of the remaining games are at Ripon.

The winners of the first two contests move on to play at 1:00 p.m. on Friday.  The teams that lose their first games will meet at 4:00 p.m. on Friday.

The baseball diamond at Marian University is Herr-Baker Field.  It's located on the corner of Prairie Road and East Division Street on the far east end of the Marian University campus.  Click here for a campus map.

Information about the 2013 Midwest Conference Tournament is available at: http://www.midwestconference.org/sports/2013/5/2/BB_0502133256.aspx?path=baseball

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