Memphis, Tenn. — The 2022 season is underway for the Concordia University Chicago baseball team as they headed south to Memphis, Tenn., to compete in the Rhodes College Classic. They faced off against Augustana College in the opener on Friday afternoon, falling to the Vikings by a final score of 12-2.
Inside the Box Score
- Fifth-year senior first baseman Brody Mariotti (Yorktown, Ind.) picked up right where he left off last season with a home run and a pair of RBIs.
- Sophomore Vincent Sartori (Crest Hill, Ill.) was stellar out of the bullpen, allowing one earned run over 3.0 innings of work while striking out four.
- Sophomore Aidan Donovan (Santee, Calif.) had the only other extra-base hit for the Cougars with a double in the sixth.
- Junior Gary Maynard (Oswego, Ill.) and senior Michael Zavoli (Santa Clara, Utah) also had hits on the day.
After both teams failed to produce a hit in the first two innings, the Vikings started the top half of the third with a single to left. The runner would eventually steal second and score on a base hit two batters later to give Augustana a 1-0 lead. With runners on first and second after a hit by pitch, starting pitcher Cole Carman (Littleton, Colo.) was in search of a ground ball to get him out of the inning.
Carman did induce the ground ball, but it came after a double steal moved the runners to second and third. Though they got the second out of the inning, another run crossed the plate in the process. After a two-out walk, the Vikings opened up their lead with a three-run homer to right center.
The Vikings went on to add three more runs in the following inning to jump to an 8-0 lead through four.
Things settled down for the Cougars on the mound once Sartori took over. After allowing an earned run in the fourth, the sophomore right-hander got himself out of a jam with an inning-ending double play.
He'd send the Vikings down in order in the fifth before striking out the side in a scoreless sixth.
Donovan delivered the first hit of the season for the Cougars with a lead-off double in the bottom of the sixth. Two batters later, Mariotti did what he's done so often and powered one over the left field wall to get the team on the board.
It's the 27th home run of the senior's career, breaking a tie with Jack Walker (2006-09) for third-most in school history.
Sophomore Wyatt McLaughlin (Cave Creek, Ariz.) relieved Sartori in the seventh and recorded a 1-2-3 inning. Zavoli led off the bottom half with a single, but nothing more came of the inning.
The Vikings added four insurance runs in the top of the eighth, enough to take a 10-run lead and eventual victory by run rule after eight.
The Cougars will be right back in action on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. when they take on Fontbonne University. A stream will be available on cucougars.com/coverage.