Rock Falls outlasts BNC rival Dixon for road win

DIXON – Veterans Memorial Field hosted a roller coaster Tuesday evening, but there was more bemusement than amusement at this park.

Rock Falls built a five-run lead going into the bottom of the fifth, but Dixon rallied to tie the game going into the seventh. The Rockets answered, scoring three times in the final inning, then got out of a bases-loaded jam for the second straight frame to pull out a 10-8 Big Northern Conference victory at Page Park.

“It’s awesome to get this win,” Carter Hunter said. “We took a bad loss the other day [to Genoa-Kingston], and this is a great way to bounce back.”

“It’s great to see everybody contribute,” Ethan Mathews added. “Early in the season we struggled a little bit with that, and it’s great seeing us all get the job done and pull out a hard win today.”

Neither team played its best baseball. The Rockets walked seven Dukes, hit three more with pitches, and also committed four errors. Dixon’s tying runs in the bottom of the sixth scored on a wild pitch and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch.

But the Dukes weren’t any sharper. They made seven errors, including three in the top of the seventh as Rock Falls retook the lead on a pair of run-scoring errors and a Hunter sacrifice fly.

“We need to quit making errors. If we stop making errors, we might win every game,” Brady Feit said.

“We’ve just got to flush this. We’ve got them Thursday at their place, so we’ve just got to try and get a road win like they did today.”

Hunter reached base four times and had a pair of RBIs for the Rockets (10-11-1, 6-5 BNC), while Ethan Moeller had two hits and scored twice. Austin Castaneda reached base three times, scored twice and drove in a run. A.J. Moore had two hits and reached base four times, Mason Landes had a pair of hits and an RBI, and Connor Fritz and Owen Laws each added a hit and an RBI as all nine Rockets reached base at least twice.

“The bats have been hot recently, and everyone has been hitting. If we make some plays in the field today, we win by a lot more. But all the guys in the dugout right now, we can all hit, and we know it,” Hunter said. “It’s very key for us to put pressure on the defense. Getting on base is something we’re very good at, and we’re great at hitting the ball and scoring runs.”

Rock Falls scored three runs in the first inning on an error and RBIs by Hunter and Landes, then tacked on another in the top of the third on a passed ball to take a 4-2 lead. The Rockets built their margin to 7-2 on RBI groundouts by Laws and Castaneda and a two-out RBI single by Fritz in the top of the fifth.

But Dixon (11-4, 8-2 BNC) showed its resilience. Jake Whelan blooped a two-out, two-run single in the second inning, then Dre Diaz cut the deficit to 7-3 with a sac fly in the fifth. Feit added a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth before he scored the tying run when Jake Zepezauer was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded a few batters later.

Dixon left the bases loaded in the final two innings and stranded five runners in scoring position over the last three frames. The Dukes struck out 10 times, including five times with the bases loaded in the final two innings.

“We didn’t give up,” Feit said. “We knew we had to get into the pitcher’s head a little, try to get him rattled, and we took advantage before he came out. Then we saw their ace coming in and were patient and tried to get in his head. We just struck out too many times today.”

Whelan had three hits, and Eli Kirchhoff added a pair of singles and scored twice for Dixon.

Mathews was effective on the mound for the Rockets for the first five innings, giving up just three runs and four hits before a couple of errors derailed Rock Falls in the sixth. He struck out six, walked three, hit a batter and kept the Dukes from mounting any serious rallies until his final frame.

“Really, I went out there and did my own thing on the mound today. I kept focus, and when I got down in the count, I just took a second and came back and pounded the zone,” Mathews said.

“It’s great when the bats are going like today; it makes it a lot easier to go out there and throw strikes, because the pressure is taken off you a little bit. You just have to focus on each pitch, each moment, and trust the team.”