Box Score The Dominican University Stars staved off elimination in the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) Baseball Tournament, topping the Edgewood College Eagles 6-5.  The win propels the Stars into the next round of the tournament while capping the Eagles season at 17-23.
 
The Stars fell behind 3-0 after one inning, after Ryan O’Dell belted an bases loaded RBI single that cleared the bases after the ball bounced passed left fielder Garrett Flavin (Chicago, Ill.).
 
Mitch McCaffery (Johnson Creek, Wis.) then settled down on the mound for the Stars, setting down twelve in a row after issuing a leadoff walk in the second.
 
The score remained 3-0 in favor into the fifth when Edgewood tacked on a run sacrifice fly by Ryan Clark, plating Brandon Bartels.
 
Dominican finally broke through in the top of the eighth, scoring their first run on a bases loaded fielder’s choice by Tim Dernulc (Dyer, Ind.).  Then with Jon Basinski (Chicago, Ill.) on third, Basinski broke for home on a pickoff attempt by Miles Mayer trying to catch Dernulc at first.  Basinski slid in safe to bring the Stars to life.
 
Dominican added four more runs in the frame, the big blow a two-run single by Chris Kemp (Oak Lawn, Ill.) that knotted the game at 4-4.
 
Cody Mueller (Addison, Ill.) sat the Eagles down in order in the eighth but the Eagles got to the Stars’ relief pitcher in the ninth with two outs as Jake Zadra lined an RBI double down the left field line.  Mueller then gave way to Zack Roszak (South Chicago, Ill.) who closed out his fifth game of the season getting O’Dell to line out to center for the final out.
 
Mueller picked up the win in relief, surrendering just one run over 4.1 innings.  The freshman scattered three hits and three walks while striking out three.
 
Offensively, Dominican pounded out 14 hits seven from freshmen Ryan DiCristofano (Streamwood, Ill.) and Tim Varallo (Chicago, Ill.).
 
Dominican, now 21-21 on the season, will next face the loser of Benedictine University and Concordia University Chicago at approximately 4:00 PM on Friday afternoon with the winner advancing to day three of the NAC Tournament.