Loggers Lose Twice to Parkland College
 
The Lincoln Land baseball team dropped the first two games of a four game conference set against the Parkland College Cobras on Friday afternoon, losing 10-2 and 5-3.
 
Game one was all Cobras.  Parkland Starting pitcher Mike Peters threw a complete game, hurling all seven innings, surrendering the Loggers only two runs on 3 hits and 4 walks as he fanned 11 Logger batters.  The Cobras struck early offensively off Logger starting pitcher Ben Hecht (5-1), who took his first loss of the season.  Cobra lead off man Donovan Chandler led the game off with a walk and stole second. Chris Whelan followed with a seeing eye single that advanced Chandler to third, and he would score on Tanner Russel's ground ball double play to make the score 1-0.
 
The Loggers tied the game up in their half of the fourth inning.  Sophomore shortstop Tyler Ring led the inning off with a single and then steal second to get into scoring position.  Catcher Jake Morsch drove in Ring with an RBI single up the middle.  The score would not remain tied long, as the Cobras erupted for 6 runs in the top of the fifth, and the Loggers would not be able to recover, losing 10-2.
 
A four run first inning in game two proved to be the dagger the Cobras needed to sweep the double header.  With the bases loaded and two outs, Parkland's Joe Boyle and Bobby Wenthe hit back to back singles off Logger starting pitcher Ryan Arnold (4-2) that scored two runs apiece. The Cobras added a run in the bottom of the second to extend their lead to 5-0.
 
The Logger battled their way back, scoring single runs in each of the final three innings.  Xavier Collier represented the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the seventh, but he grounded out sharply to shortstop to end the game. Lincoln Land only managed 5 hits against Parkland starting pitcher Daniel Lloyd, who pitched six strong innings and striking out ten to earn the win. Tyler Ring and Ben Hecht finished the game with two hits each for the Loggers.
 
The Loggers will travel to Champaign tomorrow to finish the series against Parkland.  The two teams will play a double header at the University of Illinois starting at 1 pm