MOUNT VERNON – Cornell cracked a season-high 18 hits and cruised to a 15-5 Midwest Conference baseball win in eight innings over Knox Monday at Ash Park Field.
 
The Rams (16-10 overall) took two out of three games from the Prairie Fire (7-19 overall, 1-10 MWC) and improved to 7-5 in league play at the halfway point of the MWC season.
 
The Rams had nine players register a hit and scored nine-plus runs for the eighth time this spring. Kale Rose, named MWC Position Player of the Week earlier in the day, went 3-for-4 with three runs and reached base four times. The sophomore is batting .538 over a current six-game hot stretch.
 
Right-fielder Darren Mancke went 3-for-6 at the plate, extending his on-base streak to 23 games. Shortstop James Kent also collected three hits, including a game-ending two-run single in the bottom of the eighth. Kent recorded two of Cornell's six doubles in the game.  
 
Seth Beals, Vince Zipperer and Grant Morris all chipped in two hits apiece for the Rams, who took control with a five-run second inning and then finished off Knox via the mercy rule with a four-run eighth frame. Zipperer scored four times in the contest.
 
Senior left-hander Will Miller earned his first win of the season, tossing 5.2 innings and striking out eight. 
 
Coming up -- The Rams play host to Monmouth (9-17, 4-10 MWC) in a doubleheader Wednesday. First pitch is 4 p.m.