Illinois Valley Times

Western Illinois Baseball team dropped the series opener against Texas Tech on Friday (Feb. 24). The Leathernecks led early 2-0 before the Red Raiders took control and finished with an 11-3 victory.

WIU started with the foot on the gas. Nick Mitchell led off with a single to get the offense going. Kyree Alexander would see just one pitch as he followed up Mitchell's single with one of his own. With runners on 1st and 2nd, J.R. Heavilin lined a ball into right-center for an RBI single. Heavilin would advance to 2nd on an error by the right fielder. Derek Botaletto adds another as he would ground out, letting Alexander score to give WIU an early 2-0 lead. Texas Tech would get one back in the bottom of the frame on an RBI double to left center. Mitchel Sampson would limit the damage to one as he would get the next two Red Raider batters to fly out. 
The Western Illinois offense would look stagnant in the 2nd inning as Chase VanDerGinst was the only Leatherneck to reach base. VanDerGinst would walk after falling behind in the count 0-2. VanDerGinst would steal 2nd base, but WIU could not bring him in to score. Texas Tech would add two more runs in the bottom of the 2nd as a sac fly, and an RBI ground out would give them a 3-2 lead. Texas Tech added another run in the bottom of the 3rd as they hit a solo home run to right field and increased their lead to two. WIU would try to regain momentum in the 4th as Botaletto would lead off the inning with a single, but a double play would wipe away the Leatherneck's chances. The Leatherneck's defense stepped up as Peter Fusek would make a sliding grab in right field to help keep TTU scoreless in the 4th. 

Nick Mitchell got it rolling again in the 5th. A one-out double would put him in a scoring position. After a strikeout by Alexander, Jake Allgeyer would step up to the plate. Allgeyer would send a 3-2 pitch into the turf forcing the shortstop to field the hop on the 2nd basemen side of second base. Allgeyer would end up beating the throw for an infield single. In the play, Nick Mitchell never stopped running as he would round third and head home to bring WIU within one. WIU would head to the bullpen at the bottom of the 5th. After a short outing by Jackson Burk, Jack Bell came in with runners on 1st and 2nd after a wild pitch that advanced the runner on 2nd 90 feet. Bell would get a flyout and an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play to limit the damage to just one. 

Down 5-3, WIU had an opportunity to cut into the deficit as Max Slavens drove a ball over the right fielder's head for a one-out triple. WIU would be unable to capitalize as back-to-back strikeouts would retire the Leathernecks. Texas Tech's offense would start waking up as they would score six runs over the next two innings to take game one of the series 11-3.
Nick Mitchell led the way for the Leatherneck's offense. Mitchell had two hits in four at-bats, including a double. Mitchell also scored twice for WIU. Kyree Alexander, Jake Allgeyer, J.R. Heavilin, Derek Botaletto, and Max Slavens all had one hit. Slavens and Mitchell were the only Leathernecks with an extra-base hit. Chase VanDerGinst drew the lone two walks for WIU. Mitchel Sampson got the start for Western Illinois. He pitched 4.0 innings striking out two well and giving up four runs on three hits. Jack Bell came in relief and pitched 3.0 innings giving up two runs on one hit.

WIU will be back in action on Saturday (Feb. 25) as they will battle Texas Tech in a doubleheader, with game one starting at noon and game two at 3:00

Original source can be found here.