The Dominican University baseball team split a Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) doubleheader on Sunday, falling to the MSOE Raiders in game one 11-6 before picking up a 5-3 win over the Raiders in game two.

The Stars trailed 5-3 after six innings in game one before the Raiders’ offensive pushed across five runs on four hits in the top of the seventh. Casimir Zwiazek (Chicago, Ill.) issued a pair of walks to start off the seventh inning before giving way to the Stars’ bullpen. Zwiazek was charged with seven runs, six earned, in six-plus innings of work in making his fifth start of the season.

The Raiders pounded out 19 hits in the win, while the Stars offense rapped out 11 hits but left 11 men on base.

In game two, the Stars took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first. Jonathan Basinski (Chicago Ridge, Ill.) drew a leadoff walk. A sacrifice bunt put Basinski on second and the Raiders hit Lenny Cunzalo (Chicago, Ill.) to put runners on first and second for Chris Anderson (Plainfield, Ill.) who ripped an RBI single to left with Cunzalo taking third on the throw. Cunzalo then scored as Chris Kemp (Oak Lawn, Ill.) grounded out.

The Raiders evened the score at 2-2 with runs off right-hander Jesse Bongartz (Peoria, Ill.) in the third and fourth innings. However, Dominican answered with a three-run fifth inning started by back-to-back-to-back singles by David Ershbock (Round Lake Beach, Ill.) Zwiazek and Basinski.

The Raiders got one run back off Bongartz in the seventh but couldn’t get any closer. Bongartz picked up the complete-game victory to improve to 2-2 on the season. The 6’2 right-hander scattered eight hits and one walk over nine innings while striking out four.

The split pushes the Stars’ record to 9-27 overall and 6-13 in the NAC. The Stars will return to action on Monday night, traveling to Elmhurst to take on the Elmhurst Bluejays. Dominican will then close out the 2011 campaign on Thursday, as they host the Aurora University Spartans for a 3:00 PM doubleheader.