The Dominican University baseball team returned to the diamond on Wednesday afternoon, falling 5-4 in 12 innings to the Elmhurst College Bluejays to fall to 10-16 on the season.
 
The Stars' offense snapped a 17-inning scoreless streak with a four-spot in the top of the sixth to take a 4-3 lead over the Bluejays.  Richie Green (Chicago, III.) and Nathaniel Natividad (Oak Lawn, III.) ripped back-to-back RBI doubles for the Stars in the inning and Dominican capped the rally with a bases loaded walk by Joe Kukla (Chicago, III.).
 
Robert Bavone (Bellwood, III.) came on in the bottom of the third, allowing just one inherited runner to score before hanging five consecutive zeros for the Stars.  Bavone scattered seven hits over 5 1/3 innings of work, walking one and striking out three.
 
In the ninth, Chance Emlund (Chicago, III.) came on for the save opportunity, but the Stars' junior left-hander surrendered an unearned run when a throwing error by Natividad put the leadoff man in the inning in scoring position.  After a sacrifice bunt, the tying run came across on a single to right by Brandon Kressner to force extras.
 
The Stars stranded a leadoff single in the top of the 11^th before going down in order in the top of the 12^th.  Meanwhile, the Bluejays managed just a two-out single in the tenth before going down in order in the 11^th.  Then in the home half of the 12^th, Ben Havel ripped a walk-off home run off of Dominican's Quinten Hayes (Indianapolis, Ind.) with one out.  Hayes was tagged with the loss, working 2 1/3 innings to fall to 0-1 on the season.
 
Offensively, eight different players tallied one hit apiece for the Stars, with Green and Natividad logging the only extra-base hits in the game for Dominican.

The Stars return to Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play on Saturday, entertaining the front-running Concordia University Chicago Cougars for a 12:00 p.m. doubleheader at Schaumburg Boomers Stadium.