GALESBURG, Ill. — The off-and-on rain did nothing to slow Beloit College on Tuesday afternoon at Blodgett Field as the Buccaneers (23-13, 11-7 MWC) moved into a first-place tie with Monmouth College atop the Midwest Conference baseball standings by defeating host Knox College (14-21, 6-12 MWC), 11-1.

Beloit roughed up Prairie Fire starter Ethan Rompala-Matthews (0-3) for four runs in the first, though the left-hander did record all three outs on strikeouts. From there, it was a parade of relievers, the first of whom surrendered an unearned run in the second, and the next three runs in the third to make it an 8-0 game.

In the bottom half of the third, Knox pushed across one run on an RBI single by sophomore Nicholas Nitti, then had the bases loaded with two down before starter Eamon Burke escaped further damage by getting a strikeout to retire the side.

An RBI double by Jack Alport, who had a game-high three hits, kicked off a three-run fifth for the Buccaneers, with the last two runs scoring on a throwing error thanks to a wet ball with the rain continuing to fall.

The Prairie Fire threatened to avoid the run rule in the seventh when senior Etienne Thomas led off with a ringing double into the left-field corner. But that was as far as Thomas would get as Caleb Lasher retired three of the next four batters to bring the game to an early end.

Reliever Erick Tiegs (3-0) picked up the win with three no-hit innings in relief of Burke, facing the minimum number of batters while striking out two.

First-year Hayden Derlein had two of Knox's six hits on the afternoon.

The Prairie Fire are scheduled to host Eureka College (13-22), a team coming off a three-game sweep of Blackburn, tomorrow at 3 p.m. The game will be streamed live through the official website of Knox Athletics, PrairieFire.Knox.edu.