Aurora, Washington and St. John's extend win streaks

Benedictine University jumped over the .500 mark with a non-conference sweep of visiting Marian. Damen Castillo tallied five hits on the day for Benedictine.
Benedictine athletics photo by Steve Woltmann

Saint John's (Minn.) stayed perfect with a non-conference sweep of St. Thomas, 3-2 and 3-2 in eight innings, on Wednesday, March 24, at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The victories extended the Johnnies' win streak to 14 games going back to last season. SJU (9-0 overall) has now won each of the last seven meetings with UST and 12 of the last 15. Junior first basemanNathan Brandecker went 3-for-6 on the day, including a two-run homer and the walk-off, RBI single in game two. Offense was at a premium, as the two teams combined to bat .170 (17-for-100) on the afternoon.

Aurora University swept their doubleheader against Wisconsin Lutheran College on Wednesday at Schmid Field. Wisconsin Lutheran College team took a 4-2 lead over 10th-ranked Aurora into the sixth inning of game one on Wednesday before the Spartans scored seven over the next three innings. WLC had the tying run at the plate in the ninth, but couldn't rally enough runs as it fell 9-5. Aurora won game two by a score of 11-0 in seven innings at Stuart Sports Complex. Collin Meinert led all hitters with four hits on the day, Corey Vondra had three hits in the opener and Justin Sartori had three, a home run off the cycle, in the nightcap.

Photo Gallery: Wisconsin Lutheran vs. Aurora game one | Wisconsin Lutheran vs. Aurora game two

No. 2 Washington University faced its first ranked opponent of the season, the No. 5 Webster Gorlocks for a single game on Wednesday. Senior Collin Kahal drove the last run of the game in the 12th inning for a 4-3 win. Playing to 12 innings is tied with the May, 20, 2017 game versus Wartburg for the program's longest game at 12 innings. Starting off the season 9-0 is a program first in at least 40 years. Kahal hit the game winner with a single to deep right that sent freshman Harry Mauterer home from second base, making the final score 4-3 in favor of the Bears.

Greensboro takes two after Brevard comeback attempts fall short

The Concordia (Wis.) Falcons opened NACC non-conference play on Wednesday afternoon at Illinois Tech. The Falcons won game one, 16-5, but fell in game two, but lost game two, 18-7 to move to 5-2 on the year. The Scarlet Hawks took a 4-2 lead into the sixth inning of game one. The Falcons offense blew up with six runs in the sixth to retake the lead. Sam Beers scored two runs on a double to left field that score Daniel Hahn and Zach Swift. The Blue and White added eight more runs in the eighth inning. Daniel Hahn and Blake Gosswein both finished the inning with two runs batted in with a single and double respectively. Joshua Dudek earned the victory on the mound. The Scarlet Hawks struck back with an 18-0 lead in game two. IIT tacked on 15 runs in the fourth inning. The Falcons did not hold and added two runs in the fifth inning and five runs in the sixth inning. Sam Beers hit a grand slam to score four of the five runs.

Backed by yet another strong starting pitching performance from Luke Lamm, North Central College captured a tightly-contested 1-0 win on Wednesday over College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin rival North Park University. Lamm was magnificent on the mound once again, going 8 1/3 innings while allowing just four hits, all singles, with seven strikeouts and a pair of walks. Lamm improves to 3-0 on the season and has yet to allow a run over 21 1/3 innings this season. Offensively, both teams struggled to push across a run until the bottom of the seventh when Rob Marinec lined a one-out base hit to right and Dom Listi reached on an error by the Viking pitcher to put two on with one away. Colin Weilbacher followed with a RBI-single to right, scoring Marinec while giving North Central a 1-0 lead and what proved to be the lone run of the ballgame.

SUNY Oneonta swept a non-conference doubleheader against Cazenovia College Wednesday afternoon with scores of 6-0 and 9-8. The Red Dragons are now 4-0 on the year, while the Wildcats fall to 3-7. In the first game, Oneonta southpaw Sean Liquori allowed just one hit over four innings while striking out six Wildcats to earn his first collegiate win. Michael Dunne and Michael Losak closed out the final three innings to preserve the shutout. Sophomore Logan Carriero earned hist first collegiate win after throwing three hitless innings to start the game. Liam Kaseta finished the day going 3-for-5 with three RBI and a run scored. James Zupo chipped in with three hits and an RBI.

Anderson University (7-4, 7-4) took down Earlham College (7-4, 7-4) with a 14-4 victory in seven innings during Wednesday's Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) matchup at Don Brandon Field. "Offensively, we were really good and on point," Coach Mathew Bair said. "Most of all though, I'm proud of Jose Olivo and Cole Whitlock, two young sophomore pitchers who stepped up and threw a great game. I thought they both got squeezed a bit with the strike zone and Earlham hit some balls hard, but they didn't get rattled. They kept coming back and I hope that's a sign of us maturing." Jose Olivo (1-0) captured the win. He struck out six batters, issued four walks and allowed four runs on six hits in five innings. Cole Whitlock fanned three batters, yielded two walks and gave up zero runs on zero hits in two innings.

Junior pitchers Matt Bergeron and Devan Harrison combined to toss a five-hit shutout and lift Saint Joseph's College (4-7) past Endicott College (0-1) in a non-conference matchup on Wednesday afternoon. Bergeron picked up the victory after allowing two hits and four walks with one strikeout over 6.2 innings. Harrison earned the first save of his career after yielding three hits with a pair of K's in 2.1 frames of relief. The lone run of the game was scored in the top of the fifth, when sophomore Jackson Stanton led off with a single and later crossed the plate on a sacrifice fly off the bat of senior center fielder Hunter Richardson.

Concordia University Chicago (3-4) took both parts of Wednesday's doubleheader from the Eagles of MSOE (0-4) by final scores of 16-5 and 16-8. The Cougars had an impressive offensive showing in both games, exploding for five-run innings on three separate occasions. They scored in several different ways, flexing power and speed, and have now produced double-digits runs in four of their seven games. The Cougars entered the bottom of the sixth in game one trailing 5-3, but an outburst of eight runs quickly changed that. The highlight of the sixth inning was a two-run home run by junior Michael Zavoli . The only other Cougar home run came off the bat of Howie Hatton (North Riverside, Ill.) in the bottom of the eighth. The junior's long ball brought home three runs, extending the Cougar lead to 11 and ending the game. In the nightcap, the Cougars struck first in game two with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first courtesy of senior Brody Mariotti's fourth home run of the season and continued to pile on runs early. The Eagles eventually cut the Cougar lead to 6-5 in the top half of the seventh, but CUC hung five runs right back on them in the bottom half, as well as five more in the eighth, to round out their dominant day at the dish. Despite all of the offense, the most crazy occurrence of the afternoon was sophomore Gary Maynard getting hit by a pitch SIX different times.

Transylvania displayed its full repertoire in sweeping the Hanover College Panthers, 11-8 and 5-4 on Wednesday evening at Legends Ballpark. In a matchup of the top two teams in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference, the Pioneers poured on the offense in the midweek opener to clinch one victory against the Panthers before using a walk-off RBI single from Michael Blair in the bottom of the ninth to complete the doubleheader sweep. In both games, Transy's starting pitchers each tossed six quality innings to bolster the defensive attack while a full cadre of hitters collaborated to form a relentless offense through the duration of the evening. Game one starter Evan Hall enjoyed an exceptional outing, dealing a career-high 11 strikeouts, his most since the second start of his career in 2018 versus Defiance. Trent Pahl initiated the final Wednesday rally with a lead-off single up the middle with no outs, and Youngblood moved Pahl to second with a sacrifice bunt. The Panthers then intentionally walked Willbur and Chastain for a double play opportunity. Blair quelled Hanover's hopes for a defensive boon with a no-doubt single into centerfield to bring Pahl across the plate for the fifth and final run of the game.

No. 18 ranked UW-Whitewater baseball team continued its winning ways Wednesday afternoon with a pair of victories over UW-Oshkosh in a doubleheader at Prucha Field at James B. Miller Stadium. The Warhawks (4-0 overall) claimed the opener by run rule, 14-2, in seven innings, and closed the day with a walk-off, 4-3 triumph. In Game 2, catcher Ryan Norton socked a go-ahead, two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the eighth, but the Titans (2-2) leveled the game with a solo homer in the top of the ninth. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth, third baseman Tucker Criswell extended the game with a double to left center. After left fielder Matt Korman drew a walk, the two runners advanced on a passed ball. Criswell scored on a balk to give the Warhawks a walk-off win. In Game 1, the Warhawks scored six runs in the bottom of the second and eight more in the bottom of the fifth to secure the run-rule win. Donovan Brandl (Rudolph, Wis./Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln) pitched six innings for his first win of the year, allowing two runs on five hits while striking out seven. He also finished with two runs scored and two RBIs at the plate. Moroder recorded all three outs by strikeout in the seventh.

Wheaton (ill.) got off to a quick start and never looked back on Wednesday night in winning their third-straight game with a 10-5 victory over Carthage. The Thunder batted around and plated six runs in the top of the first inning to land an early knockout blow and improve to 3-0 in CCIW action and 5-4 overall. Carthage falls to 4-3 overall and 0-2 in the CCIW. Wheaton returns to Lee Pfund Stadium on Saturday afternoon for a 1 pm doubleheader against Illinois Wesleyan. The Thunder offense put each of the first four batters on base to start the game and broke the game open early when Joel Pierce unclogged the bases with a three-run doubles that put Wheaton ahead 5-0. Cale Lewis followed with an RBI single to make it 6-0 before Carthage came to the plate. Wheaton starter Brendan Dyer made the Thunder lead stand up by scattering seven hits over five innings of work with one strikeout and one work.

Emory & Henry College (1-4, 1-4 ODAC) picked up its
first win of the year on Wednesday afternoon with a
13-5 win over visiting Guilford College (0-5).
Emory and Henry athletics photo

Junior Shane McNamara belted three home runs while seniors Mike Griffin and Steven Pesce each launched one homer to propel Eastern Nazarene College to a pair of non-conference wins over Gordon Wednesday afternoon at Libby Field. The Lions rallied for a 6-5 walk-off win in game one before cruising to a 13-1 victory in the finale. McNamara paced the offense with three hits, three runs scored, and eight RBIs on the day. Griffin finished with a pair of hits, two runs scored, four RBIs, and a stolen base. Francis Ferguson collected two hits, drove in two RBIs, swiped two bases, and scored four runs. Max Miednik and Pesce each chipped in with two hits, two runs, and one RBI. In the opening game, Eastern Nazarene erased a four-run deficit to triumph 6-5 in dramatic fashion. Eastern Nazarene rallied to produce five runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to notch its second walk-off win of the year. In the nightcap, the Lions erupted for 13 runs on nine hits and eight walks en route to a 13-1 win.

Edgewood College had the bats working in game two of a non-conference doubleheader at Dominican University on Wednesday. After dropping game one, 11-1, the Eagles scored a 12-10 win in game two to secure the split against the Stars. Dominican broke game one open in the seventh as a one-out single to right by Garrett Wano brought Grayson Downing across the plate. After a wild pitch made it 4-1, Stafford shot a ball through the left side of the infield to tack on two more runs as the Stars held a 6-1 advantage after seven innings. Hayden Young earned his first win of the season, going the distance, as he threw eight innings while scattering seven hits and fanning seven batters. The Edgewood offense was the story in game two, but the Eagles (2-9) needed its defense to get the final three outs to hold on for the 12-10 win. Eric Nelson picked up the save and stranded the bases full of Stars in the final inning with a game-clinching strikeout to send the Eagles home with a split. Three big innings resulted in 11 of the Eagles 12 runs in the nightcap. That included a five-run fifth inning which put Edgewood up 11-5 at the time. The Eagles also scored three runs in both the top of the first and second frames, but Dominican did post a five-run frame of their own in the bottom of the first.

Greensboro College's Brayden King hit an extra-inning RBI-double in game two of Wednesday afternoon's doubleheader secured a sweep as the Pride took two non-conference wins from USA South Athletic Conference member Brevard College. The Pride claimed game one, 5-1, in a seven-inning contest and took game two, 4-3, in eight innings. The Pride (6-5) did not yield a run in game one until the bottom of the seventh inning as Greensboro scored five unanswered runs to start the game. Cameron Edmonds (1-1) threw five shut-out innings and struck out five batters while walking four to claim the win for the Pride. The Pride brought home two early runs to start game two with one in the first and another in the second inning. All of Brevard's damage came in the bottom of the fifth inning with two outs to put the Tornados ahead. Josh Pittman reached on a three-base throwing error to start the top of the sixth inning and Jamar Ellis made the Tornados pay, hitting a sacrifice fly to bring home Pittman and even the game, 3-3. Ellis moved Pittman over to second base on a sacrifice bunt which set up King's game-winning RBI-double. Brevard placed the tying run at third base, but Hunter Curtis and Bryant turned a double play to end the contest and secure the sweep. Michael Garvey Jr. tallied four hits over both games, posting two hits in each contest. Layton Helms (1-0) collected his first collegiate win, throwing the final one and one-third innings where he gave up one hit. Helms came in relief of game-two starter Cole Cooper, who threw five innings, and Kendal Tucker who followed Cooper.

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Aurora, Washington and St. John's extend win streaks