GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tusculum's Zane Keener homered twice on the day as the Pioneers split Saturday's baseball doubleheader with 36th-ranked Illinois Springfield Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Park.
Pitchers Harbor Jefferson and Justin Parker combined on a pitching gem as Tusculum defeated the Prairie Stars 4-1 in the opener. In the night-cap, Illinois Springfield rallied from a pair of three run deficits and plated the tying and go-ahead runs in the top of the seventh and final inning to win 8-7.
Keener went 4-for-6 with three runs scored, four RBI and a triple to go along with his pair of round-trippers.
UIS (2-1) has taken two of the first three games of the weekend series with Tusculum (3-3). The two teams will conclude the four-game slate on Sunday afternoon a 1 p.m. (NEW GAME TIME).
Game 1: Tusculum 4, No. 36 Illinois Springfield 1
Christian Ortega belted broke a 1-1 tie with his solo homer in the fifth and TU tacked on a pair of insurance runs in the eighth to secure the 4-1 victory.
Jefferson (2-0) recorded the win in his second start of the year as he went 6.2 innings, scattered seven hits with one run, zero walks and four strikeouts in his 86-pitch performance. Justin Parker pitched the final 2.1 innings to secure the save.
Tusculum jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning as Keener belted a solo home run to right field. The Prairie Stars tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the fifth as Bobby Barnard led off with a single and scored on Nick Mayerhofer's two-base flair down the right field line. But Jefferson left Mayerhofer stranded at second base.
In the bottom of the fifth, Ortega belted a missile over the 400-foot sign in straight-away center for a 2-1 TU lead. It was his second homer of the season.
In the seventh inning, UIS mounted a two-out rally as Mayerhoffer and Asher Bradd reached on back-to-back singles to chase Jefferson out of the game. Parker came aboard and got a ground out to end the inning a preserve the 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth frame, Kyle Williams drove in Zach Wilson with his second hit of the game and Rudy Fernandez drove him in with his triple to right.
Parker worked around a one-out single in the ninth to claim his first save of the year.
Both teams finished with eight hits apiece as Bradd, Bobby Barnard and Mayerhoffer all had two-hit games.
Game 2: No. 36 Illinois Springfield 8, Tusculum 7
UIS's Kal Youngquist and Brant Vanaman each hit a two-run homer to rally the Prairie Stars to an 8-7 victory.
Trailing 7-6 heading to the seventh and final inning, Barnard drew a lead-off walk and moved to second on Bradd's perfectly placed bunt single on the first base line. The both runners moved up a base on a failed pickoff attempt at second to place the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.
Bannon walked to load the bases, but on the fourth pitch to Zion Pettigrew, TU reliever Justin Parker was called for a balk as Barnard scored the tying run. Pettigrew struck out looking for the first out of the inning, but Youngquist drove in the go-ahead run with his RBI ground out which was far enough off the mound to score Bradd from third base for an 8-7 lead.
Luke Fitton took over in the bottom of the seventh as he got the first two outs before surrendering a pinch-hit single by Will Samuelson. But Fitton closed the door with a strikeout for his first save of 2022.
Tusculum finished the game with 10 hits as Keener went 3-for-3 with three RBI and two runs scored. Luis Ezra had two hits including his second homer of the year for the Pioneers.
UIS reliever Matt Blaney secured the win as he tossed 1.1 shutout innings where he allowed one hit, one walk and three strikeouts.
