DAVENPORT, Fla. — After winning 11 games without a loss in 2023, Beloit College junior pitcher Aiden Phipps found himself in the unusual position of 0-1 heading into his second start of the season on Saturday.
Phipps evened his record at 1-1 as he went six innings and allowed three runs in a 9-4 win over Illinois Tech in Beloit’s opening game in the 2024 RussMatt Invitational. On Sunday, Beloit dropped a pair of close games to Loras College at the RussMatt Invitational, 3-1 and 2-3, in Auburndale, Fla.
On Saturday, Phipps scattered nine hits and two walks while striking out two. Caleb Lasher went one inning and Harvey Pena went the final two innings, striking out three and not allowing a hit.
Illinois Tech (1-4) led 3-0 before the Buccaneers went to work in the bottom of the third inning. Drew Hanson singled, Preston Matson walked and Jack Alport singled to load the bases. Matt O’Leary delivered a two-run double to right center. Connor Vogel followed with a two-run single to right to give the Bucs a 4-3 lead.
Alport added an RBI single in the fifth and Beloit went up 6-3 with an unearned run in the sixth. The Scarlet Hawks cut it to 6-4 in the seventh. In the bottom of the inning, Elijah Love reached on an error and scored on Blake Nelson’s RBI single.
Brett Kiger bashed his second homer of the season in the eighth with Vogel aboard for a 9-4 lead.
• SUNDAY: The Bucs were outhit 9-4 in the opener against Loras, but led 1-0 after Love’s single knocked in Kiger in the second inning. Loras took the lead with three runs in the fourth inning, all off starter Eamon Burke (0-1). He allowed six hits and three runs in 3 1-3 innings. He walked three and struck out two.
Reliever Micah Wilk was impressive, allowing three hits in 3 2-3 scoreless innings. He walked one and fanned one.
Jack Alport, Miles Souza, Love and Nolan Tomsyck each had one hit for the Bucs.
Beloit dropped the second game 3-2 in eight innings. The Bucs scored twice in the fourth inning to wipe out a 1-0 deficit, but Loras tied it in the sixth and pushed across a run against Tommy Murray (0-1) in the eighth.
Loras outhit Beloit 9-6. All six of the Bucs’ hits were singles, by O’Leary, Vogel, Evan Zenger, Love, Hanson and Brendan Meyers.
Kaiya Nishino started for Beloit and went six innings, allowing six hits and two runs. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out four. Murray pitched 1 2-3 innings, allowing three hits and one run, walking two and fanning two.
The Bucs play Stockton University at 11:45 CT on Monday.
Saturday’s linescore:
BELOIT 9, ILLINOIS TECH 4
Illinois Tech 102 000 100 — 4 11 5
Beloit College 004 011 12x — 9 12 0
Leading hitters: IT, Paxson 4x5, 2 runs, 2 rbi; Friar 2x4; Old 2x4, 1 run. BC, Alport 3x4, 1 run, 1 rbi; O’Leary 4x5, 2 runs, 2 rbi; Vogel 1x4, 1 run, 2 rbi; Kiger 1x5, 1 run, 2 rbi. 2B: Paxson, O’Leary, Nelson (BC). 3B: Paxson. HR: Kiger.
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): IT, Bracewell (L,0-1) 4.0-6-4-4-4-2-4; Blake 1.0-1-1-0-2-0; Trojanows 2.0-3-2-0-1-2; Dwyer 1.0-2-2-1-1-0. BC, Phipps (W,1-1) 6.0-9-3-3-2-2; Lasher 1.0-2-1-1-0-0; Pena 2.0-0-0-0-0-3.
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