The Dominican University baseball team opened the 2015 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) season on Sunday, sweeping a doubleheader from the Concordia University Wisconsin Falcons at Boomers Stadium in Schaumburg.
 
The victories push the Stars to 5-8 on the year with their next NACC series on deck for Monday as the Stars travel to Aviators Stadium in Rockford to take on the Rockford University Regents.
 
Game One:  Dominican 8, Concordia Wisconsin 4
 
The Stars staked starting pitcher Chance Emlund (Chicago, III.) to a five-run lead in the bottom of the first as the Stars opened the day with an 8-4 win to open NACC play.
 
After Richie Green (Chicago, III.) bounced a two-out single up the middle to score Max Jungblut (Las Vegas, Nev.) from third, Joe Lyons (Chicago Ridge, III.) followed with a double to left that scored Green and Colin Janison (Las Vegas, Nev.).  Freshman Nathaniel Natividad (Oak Lawn, III.) followed with an RBI single and Tim Varallo (Chicago, III.) capped the two-out, five-run rally with a single to right to score Natividad.
 
An Isaac Tewes sacrifice fly got one run back for the Falcons in the top of the second before the Stars got back to work in the bottom of the third.  Dominican took advantage of a Falcons' error as Varallo doubled down the left field line with two outs to score Natividad.
 
Dominican tacked on another run in the bottom of the fifth as Varallo plated Lyons, who drew a leadoff walk, with a sacrifice fly out to center.  It was the third RBI of the afternoon for Varallo who was batting out of the nine hole. 
 
In the top of the sixth it was the Falcons' turn to take advantage of a pair of Dominican errors, scoring when Tewes bounced into a fielder's choice with runners at the corners.
 
Dominican got that run back in the bottom of the seventh before Emlund turned the game over to Quinten Hayes(Indianapolis, Ind.) after seven innings with an 8-2 lead.
 
A walk, an error and two hits helped the Falcons narrow the gap to 8-4 heading to the ninth.
 
In the ninth, Hayes hit the leadoff batter and one out later issued a free pass to Justin Barney.  Kyle Hegeman followed with an RBI single to narrow the gap to 8-5 with one out and runners at first and second.  After a wild pitch put two in scoring position, Hayes got Kyle Hilliard to pop out to Becquey at first before locking down the win when Dan Ranieri lined out to Lyons at second.
 
Emlund picked up his first win of the season as he went seven innings, surrendering two runs, one earned, on four hits and three walks while striking out five.  Hayes tossed the final two innings, allowing three runs, two earned, on three hits and two walks.
 
Offensively, Dominican picked up nine hits forcing Tyler Adams, who was tagged with the loss, to an early shower after surrendering five runs in the first.  Janison, Natividad and Varallo all finished with two hits apiece with Natividad going 2-for-2 with two walks, a RBI and a run scored.
 
Game Two:  Dominican 12, Concordia Wisconsin 11
 
Lucas McKinney (Arvada, Colo.) broke an 11-11 tie with a two-out, RBI double to right center in the bottom of the eighth scoring Lyons from first in a game that went back and forth for nine innings.
 
Tyler Brown (Bartlett, III.) then pitched a scoreless ninth, completing a 2.1-inning outing out of the bullpen, to secure the first win of his collegiate career.
 
Dominican led 2-1 after one before the Falcons posted a five-run second, capped by a big fly off the bat of Nathan Thyssen who homered out to right field.
 
Dominican answered with three runs of their own in the bottom of the second, pulling within 6-5 on Janison's two run single to left with the bases loaded.
 
Natividad then sparked a three-run third for the Stars, sending his first career home run out to left to knot the game at 6-6 before Kevin Schwer (Evergreen Park, III.) plated a run on a sacrifice fly and Becquey scored on a wild pitch for an 8-6 Stars' lead after three.
 
After a scoreless fourth, the Falcons pulled back in front with three runs in the top of the fifth.  The Falcons added a sac fly in the top of the sixth for a 10-8 lead heading into the home half of the sixth.
 
The Stars rallied for three runs in the sixth, scoring on an RBI single by Lyons.  Back-to-back walks forced in another run before Becquey put the Stars back on top with a sacrifice fly to right that scored Lyons.
 
The Falcons got to Cody Mueller (Addison, III.), the Stars' starting pitcher, for another single run in the seventh, scoring on Noah Greenberg's single to right to even the game at 11-11 and the set the stage for McKinney's game-winning double.
 
Mueller received no-decision in his second start of the year, laboring through 6.2 innings, surrendering 11 runs, eight of them earned, on 11 hits and four walks while striking out three.
 
Lyons and Janison added two hits apiece while Quinlan Milne Rojek (Minneapolis, Minn.) bounced back from an 0-for-5 outing in game one, going 3-for-5 in the nightcap.  Janison picked up three RBI in the win and now stands at .375 on the year with 11 runs batted in.