LISLE, IL - The Benedictine University baseball team brought out the bats on the final day of the NACC South Division Tournament but fell in the conference championship after fending off elimination in the opener.

FINAL SCORES
Benedictine 15, Illinois Tech 4 - Gm 1
Aurora 11, Benedictine 5 - Gm 2

THE DETAILS - GM 1
• Illinois Tech scored three runs in the bottom of the first, playing as the home team, to jump out to an early lead
• Benedictine was able to get on the board in the second inning on a sacrifice fly from Brenden Norberg
• Illinois Tech answered with a two-out run in the bottom of the inning to lead 4-1
• Benedictine responded in a big way, plating five runs in the third to take the lead and not look back
• Ryan Doubek led off the inning by reaching on an error and scored on a Jack Surin single
• With the bases loaded due to two more errors, Cameron Falk singled home a run to bring Benedictine within 4-3
• A fielder's choice tied the game and another error enabled Benedictine to lead 5-4 and Norberg notched another sacrifice fly to cap the inning, making the score 6-4
• Benedictine scored in six consecutive innings to build an insurmountable advantage
• Kevin Bushnell throttled his 17th homer of the year in the fifth inning, a three-run tape measure shot to left to make the score 12-4

STAT LEADERS - GM 1
• Drake Berman started and worked two innings before giving way to Simon Herold
• Herold threw the final seven innings near perfectly, allowing just four hits while striking out eight
• Benedictine finished with 13 hits in the contest to keep the season alive
• Surin finished with three hits while Cameron Falk and Bushnell drove home three each
• Bushnell scored four runs and Anthony Lenza crossed the plate three times

THE DETAILS - GM 2
• The win over Illinois Tech set up a contest with Aurora for the conference championship
• Aurora jumped ahead with a pair of unearned runs in the bottom of the first
• Benedictine plated two runs in the second to tie the score
• Nic Presutti drove home a run with a groundout and Kyle Mitter tied the game with a two-out single to right, plating Lenza
• Benedictine opened a 4-2 lead with runs in the third and fifth
• Damen Castillo knocked home both runs with an RBI single in the third and a titanic opposite field homer in the fifth
• Aurora took the lead behind three runs in the sixth, chasing Ryan Renken from the game
• Renken had been dealing, retiring 12 straight before the sixth
• Surin opened the seventh with a double and scored on a single from Falk with two outs to tie the game
• Aurora put three on the board in the bottom of the seventh and three more in the eighth, scoring four of the runs with two outs

STAT LEADERS - GM 2
• Renken worked 5.1 innings in a no-decision, striking out five
• Ty Liaromatis suffered the loss in relief
• Benedictine banged out 17 hits to finish with 30 on the day
• Surin notched four hits and scored twice to finish the year with a .440 average, seventh best in school history
• Falk and Mitter both tallied three hits
• Eight members of the lineup finished with hits in the game

RECORD
Benedictine finished the year with a 29-13 mark, the best record under head coach Adam Smith.