The Dominican University baseball team took on the Maranatha Baptist University Crusaders in a non-conference twinbill on Tuesday evening, sweeping the Crusaders 16-3 and 5-1.  Dominican sent ten pitchers to the mound, with Robert Bavone (Bellwood, Ill.) and Colton Malich (North Las Vegas, Nev.) each picking up their first win of the season. 
 
The wins move the Stars to 9-7 on the season with another non-conference series on Thursday against the Finlandia University Lions at Schaumburg Boomers Stadium.  The Stars then return to NACC action with the continuation of Monday's halted game against the Rockford Regents on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
 
Game One:  Dominican 16, Maranatha Baptist 3
 
Trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the fourth, the Stars' bats sprang to life.  Dominican sent 12 hitters to the plate in the frame, scoring seven runs on five hits, two hit-by-pitches and two walks.  Cody Schuster (Las Vegas, Nev.) jumpstarted the rally with a leadoff single.  Schuster came all the way around to score without the Stars putting the ball in play, aided by a passed ball and two wild pitches.  Schuster then capped the scoring later in the frame, roping an RBI double to left to score Thomas Smith (Lockport, Ill.).
 
The Stars added two more runs in the bottom of the fifth with Smith driving in a run on a single up the middle and Alex Hernandez (Des Plaines, Ill.) coming across on a passed ball.  The Stars then hung another seven runs on the Crusaders in the bottom of sixth to round out the offensive outburst.  Dominick Romito (Bloomingdale, Ill.) and Lucas McKinney (Arvada, Colo.) each logged two-run doubles in the inning.
 
Smith, Schuster, McKinney and Casey Zwiazek (Chicago, Ill.) tallied two hits apiece with Smith, McKinney and Zwiazek driving in two runs each.  In total, the Stars had ten hits and took nine walks in the winning effort.
 
Defensively, the Stars' pitching staff gave up just five hits after the first.  Bavone picked up the win, tossing a scoreless fourth.  He gave up a pair of singles in the frame, but stranded both runners with a strikeout to end the threat with Dominican leading 7-2 at the time.

Game Two:  Dominican 5, Maranatha Baptist 1
 
In the nightcap, Dominican's pitching staff combined on a one-hitter, giving up a one-out single in the third and limiting the Crusaders to just one run when a leadoff walk in the top of the first haunted Dominican's Seth Gohring (Mt. Vernon, Ind.).
 
The Stars' offense responded with three runs in the bottom of the first and the Stars never trailed the rest of the way, tacking on insurance runs in the third and sixth innings.
 
Malich struck out the side in a one-two-three fourth inning out of the bullpen.
 
Quinlan Milne Rojek (Minneapolis, Minn.) went 2-for-4 with a stolen base and a run scored while Zwiazek picked up triple and a run scored.