The Dominican University baseball team prepared for their Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) opener next weekend with a non-conference doubleheader against the Cornell College Rams on Saturday at the Holmgren Athletic Complex in Chicago, dropping both ends of the doubleheader, 10-6 and 8-0, to fall to 6-10 on the season.
 
Defensively, the Stars committed a total of 11 errors on the day, leading to 11 unearned runs.
 
Senior right-hander Robert Bavone (Bellwood, Ill) was tagged with the loss in game one, tossing five innings and surrendering seven runs, only three earned, over five plus innings.  Bavone allowed just six hits and one walk, using 82 pitches in the outing.
 
The Stars took their only lead for the day in the fifth inning of game one when Mike Piotrowski's (Arlington Heights, Ill.) major league pop up landed to the third base side of the pitcher's mound with the bases loaded, allowing Royce Salay (Henderson, Nev.) and Cody Schuster (Las Vegas, Nev.) to score, giving the Stars a 6-5 advantage.  Schuster had singled up the middle with the bases loaded, plating two runs as part of the Stars' four-run fifth.
 
Cornell reclaimed the lead in the pair of runs in the home half of the sixth and then tacked on three more in the eighth to open a 10-6 lead.
 
Dominican was able to load the bases with one away in the top of the ninth but Cornell slammed the door, getting Quinlan Milne Rojek (Minneapolis, Minn.) to fly out to shallow centerfield before Alex Hernandez (Des Plaines, Ill.) went down on strikes to end the threat.
 
The Stars managed 11 hits in game one, including a 3-for-5 game from Schuster, but then mustered just two hits in the nightcap.
 
Piotrowski, 1-for-2 in game one, saw a ten-game hitting streak come to a close, going 0-for-3 in game two.
 
The Stars will host the Aurora University Spartans next Saturday, April 2, for a noon doubleheader.  The games will be Dominican's first at their home in Schaumburg.