The #2 ranked Heartland Baseball team ran their winning streak to 18 games on Friday as they won a pair of hard fought games against the #9 ranked Cobras. The Hawks won 6-5 on a walk-off in the opener and rallied for a 7-5 win in the night cap.  HCC is now (32-5 19-3) while PC falls to (24-10 12-4). The two teams will wrap up their four game series with a pair of games in Champaign on Saturday. First pitch is set for 1:00.

Game 1:

In the bottom of the 9th, the Hawks used a single, stolen base, and an error on a sacrifice bunt to earn the walk-off win.  PC  got on the board first, as Tyler Paulsen cracked a solo homer, his 8th of the season, to give the Cobras a 1-0 lead in the 2nd. HCC would score two in the 3rd and another in the 4th to grab a 3-1 lead before PC would rally. Logan Pillars and Max Downs hit back to back doubles to cut the lead to one and tied the game on Trevor Minder's single. 

The Hawks would regain the lead in the 5th and pushed the lead back to two with a single tally in the 7th before the Cobras would rally again.  In the 8th, PC would get a double from Trystin Raikes and an RBI double from Connor Aube to cut the margin to one and would tie the game in the top of the 9th as Pillars singled and would eventually score on a Minder ground out.  Garrett Acton (1-2) was the tough luck loser as he worked 3.1 innings in relief allowing two unearned runs on two hits while striking out four.

PC      010 020 011   5  10  2
HCC   002 110 101   6   9    0
HR-Paulsen (PC)

Game 2:

Heartland rallied from a 4-2 deficit scoring five times in their last three at bats to pick up the 7-5 win.  The Hawks scored two in the first to grab the early lead but Max Downs cut that margin in half as he hit his 3rd home run of the year, a solo shot, in the 2nd. PC would tie the game in the 3rd as Bobby Barnard and Brendan Joyce had back to back singles and scored on a run scoring single by Raikes. PC would grab their first lead of the game as Downs hit his 2nd homer of the game and later scored a run on a wild pitch. Unfortunately, PC had a chance to pad their lead but left the bases loaded. 

HCC would rally in the bottom of the 4th as they scored three times with the help of two PC errors and a hit batsmen. The Hawks would tally single runs in the 5th and 6th to extend their lead to 7-4 but PC would have their chances to win the game in the 7th. With one out  Connor Aube singled and Downs and Paulsen walked to load the bases.  Nick Wisz drove in a run on a fielder's choice but the Hawks reliever made a good play on Damian Pierce's ground ball to end the game as the Cobras left the bases loaded once again.  Josh Garner (3-3) took the loss as he and Christian Sidoti combined to allow seven runs, four earned, on 12 hits while striking out 9. 

PC   011 200 1    5  7  3
HCC 200 311 X   7 12  1
HR-Downs (PC) 2