MONMOUTH, Ill. — Sophomore Nicholas Nitti twice put Knox ahead of Monmouth on Sunday afternoon with clutch hits, the second of which stood in a 10-9 victory at Glasgow Field over the host Fighting Scots. The win secured the series for the Prairie Fire (13-12, 5-4 Midwest Conference), their first over Monmouth (10-17, 5-6 MWC) in eight years.
Nitti finished the game 4-for-5 with two doubles and his first career home run while scoring three runs and driving in three. Five other starters had two hits as the Prairie Fire lit up the Fighting Scot pitchers for 16 knocks on the afternoon.
The day didn't start well for the visitors as Raul Guillermo belted a two-run homer in the first for Monmouth. The bats got cooking for Knox in the third as sophomore Tyler Kemp launched a solo shot to start the frame, his second of the season. After first-year Hayden Derlein tied the score at two with an RBI single, Nitti took Scot starter Roy Ralston deep for a two-run blast and a 4-2 lead, and senior Etienne Thomas added an RBI double before the side was retired.
That lead was short-lived, however, as Guillermo hit another four-bagger in the bottom half, this time a three-run shot, tying the game at five.
A pair of run-scoring singles in the fifth put the Fighting Scots back on top, and a wild pitch allowed another run to scamper home in the sixth made it an 8-5 contest.
With Ralston lifted for a reliever in the seventh, the bottom of the order came through to even things at eight apiece. Nitti got the inning started with a double, but he was still on second base with two down when first-year Clayton Rice ripped a two-run double to right-center and Kemp tied the game with a triple.
In the eighth, sophomore Aidan McMurtrie walked to start the stanza, moved to second on a bunt and scored the go-ahead run on Nitti's second double of the contest. He came around to score himself when a fly ball was dropped in the outfield with two gone, leaving Knox with a 10-8 lead.
That extra run proved to be important as Monmouth got a run back in the bottom of the eighth on a one-out triple and a wild pitch. Reliever Ayden Fayta held the lead, though, by retiring the next two batters.
In the ninth, Knox head coach Jami Isaacson summoned Brandon Ward to close it out, a day after he was knocked out of his start in the first game of the series in the third inning. The right-hander ran into trouble on back-to-back one-out singles, which put the tying run on third base. But he fanned the final two batters to earn his fourth save of the season.
Fayta (1-0) earned his first collegiate victory by hurling two innings and allowing just the one run as Knox reclaimed the lead. Taking the loss was Monmouth reliever Nick Villa (0-1), who gave up the final two runs, one earned, in two innings on the hill.
The Prairie Fire will continue their nine-game road swing with a three-game series at Lawrence University (11-12, 5-4 MWC) starting with a doubleheader on Friday, April 18 at noon followed by the finale on Saturday at noon as well. All three games will be streamed live by Lawrence, available for viewing through the official website of Knox Athletics, PrairieFire.Knox.edu.
