ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — After a one-hour rain delay, Knox College and Augustana College combined to allow not only 15 hits, but 20 walks, 10 hit batters and eight wild pitches, not to mention committing a total of eight errors in the field and one balk in a sloppy non-conference baseball game at Brunner Field on Thursday evening. But six of those eight errors were by Knox and the Vikings (18-15) took full advantage of them, scoring 11 unearned runs in a 16-7 defeat of the Prairie Fire (14-17).
Augustana jumped out to a quick 4-0 in the first as two scored on a throwing error and two more on a single by Chris Davis. That lead grew to six with a solitary unearned run in the second and another in the third.
A passed ball in the fourth allowed first-year Hayden Derlein to score the first Knox run of the evening, and a wild pitch brought home sophomore Nicholas Nitti to cut the deficit to four again.
But the Vikings blew the game open in the fifth, pushing six runs across the plate despite rapping out only two hits as the Prairie Fire issued four walks, hit two batters and committed a pair of errors in the frame.
In the sixth, Augustana returned the favor a bit by surrendering three runs on just one hit as Viking pitchers walked two batters, hit a batter and uncorked four wild pitches, not to mention an error in the field, making it a 12-6 ball game.
Nitti drove home a run grounding into a fielder's choice in the seventh, but Augustana clapped back with two more unearned runs in the bottom half. The same pattern held in the eighth as the Prairie Fire scored a run on a fielder's choice off the bat of sophomore Aiden McMurtrie, and the Vikings responded with two runs, one scoring on a balk, the other on a bases-loaded walk.
Knox loaded the bases in the ninth with one down only to have the game end on a double play.
Zachary Gulliksen (2-0) was credited with the win after pitching the third inning and getting two outs in the fourth while allowing two unearned runs and striking out three. As a staff, Augustana gave out 10 free passes and threw five wild pitches but hit only two batters.
Of the 16 runs scored by the Vikings, only the first three and the final two were earned. Junior left-hander Ethan Rompala-Matthews (0-2) was tagged with the loss after allowing the first four runs in his only inning of work, though he did get two of his three outs on strikeouts.
The Prairie Fire will look to end their five-game skid on Saturday, April 26 when they host Cornell College (11-21, 3-11 Midwest Conference) in a doubleheader beginning at noon. The games will be streamed live with live stats through the official website of Knox Athletics, PrairieFire.Knox.edu.
