GALESBURG, Ill. — Hayden Derlein could not have picked a better moment to swat his first collegiate home run. The first-year shortstop crushed a 2-1 pitch over the left-field fence in the bottom of the ninth for a three-run, walk-off home run to complete a seven-run comeback and lift the Knox College baseball team to a 9-8 victory in the second game of a Midwest Conference doubleheader against Ripon on Saturday afternoon at Blodgett Field. The visiting Red Hawks (5-9, 1-1 MWC) had no trouble in the conference opener, however, defeating the Prairie Fire (9-8, 1-1 MWC), 18-1.
Knox entered the ninth of game two trailing 8-5, having scored twice in the sixth, once in the seventh and once in the eighth to cut into its seven-run deficit. A trio of sophomores got the inning started right as Tyler Kemp was hit by a pitch, Tyler Thiem rolled a grounder up the middle for a base hit and Aidan McMurtrie nearly tied the game, hitting an RBI double off the left-field fence, putting the tying runs in scoring position with nobody out.
Ripon decided to send left-hander Matt Miller (0-2) to the mound to face the heart of the Prairie Fire order, and that move proved fateful as Derlein greeted the southpaw by launching his game-winning long ball, the second walk-off win for Knox in the past week.
"I was just looking to get my pitch and hit the ball hard," an excited Derlein said after the game. "When I got up in the count, I got a fastball where I like it and put a good swing on it. I'm just happy it went over the fence!"
The comeback made a winner out of senior reliever Brandon Ward (2-0), who surrendered three unearned runs on eight hits and a walk over 5.2 innings — his longest stint since March 2 of last year — while fanning five.
Both Thiem and McMurtrie had four hits as the Prairie Fire pounded out 14 in the contest. Kemp also homered, his first of the season, to get Knox on the board in the third, responding to Ripon scoring the first three runs of the game in the top half of the inning.
The Prairie Fire had to make like goldfish and forget about the first game after it got away from them. The Red Hawks score twice in the first, four in the third, four more in the fifth, five in the six and three in the eighth while bashing three homers and five doubles amongst their 16 hits.
Sophomore Nicholas Nitti tripled home Derlein for the lone Knox run in the sixth, but it was not nearly enough to keep the game from ending after seven innings due to the run rule.
Blaine Wahlen (2-2) earned the victory for Ripon, going the distance while scattering eight hits without a walk and striking out six. Sophomore Leo Dircks (1-2) took the loss for the Prairie Fire after giving up six runs, five earned, in three frames.
- Jason Clark, who hit .299 with 10 homers in nearly 400 at-bats for Knox, is now playing as a graduate student at Ripon and went 3-for-10 with two runs and an RBI in the doubleheader.
- In last year's season finale, the Prairie Fire won in walk-off fashion against the Red Hawks, 6-5, thanks to a three-run ninth; the winning run was driven in by Clark.
- The comeback from a seven-run deficit was the largest for Knox since defeating Colby-Sawyer, 12-11, after trailing by a 10-2 score entering the eighth inning two years ago.
The two teams will conclude their three-game series tomorrow at Blodgett Field at noon, weather permitting. Should the rain hold off, live video and stats will be available through PrairieFire.Knox.edu, the official website of Knox Athletics.
