OSCEOLA, Fla. -- The Illinois Wesleyan baseball team lost a 12-9 decision to Illinois College to open its spring break schedule on Friday, March 8, at Heritage Park in Osceola, Fla., as part of the RussMatt Invitational.

The Titans are 2-1 ahead of a Friday night game against Marymount (Va.) while the Blueboys improved to 2-5.

Against Illinois College, sophomore designated hitter Eric Kozlowski had two hits including a ninth inning solo home run and junior second baseman Jeran Simpson and freshman rightfielder Evan Ranneklev each had two singles and scored two runs.

Sophomore Hunter Simon (1-1) was the losing pitcher for IWU, who had five pitchers touched up for a total of 21 hits. Illinois Wesleyan took advantage of five Illinois College errors in the game and rallied from an 11-4 deficit to score three in the eighth and two more in the ninth before leaving the bases loaded with the go-ahead run at the plate.