The Dominican University baseball team avoided dropping their second Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) salvaging a split with the Lakeland College Muskies with a 6-4 win in game two of the Stars' doubleheader on Friday evening at Schaumburg Boomers Stadium.
The Stars, now 15-19 overall and 8-8 in the NACC, will travel to Milwaukee on Saturday to take on the MSOE Raiders in Dominican's second-to-last conference series of the regular season. Dominican currently sits in seventh place with four games to play, trying to break into the top six in the NACC standings to earn a spot in the 2016 NACC Baseball Tournament.
Game One: Lakeland 12, Dominican 10
The Stars used a seven-run fifth inning to erase a 4-0 lead for the Muskies only to see Lakeland answer in the top of the sixth with four runs of their own to reclaim the lead 8-7. After Dominican pulled back ahead with three runs in the bottom of the sixth, Lakeland scored the final four runs of the game, taking a 12-10 decision despite committing nine errors defensively.
Lucas McKinney (Arvada, Colo.) picked up three hits, going 3-for-5 with a run batted in while
JT Hicks (Albion, Mich.) and
Cody Schuster (Las Vegas, Nev.) collected two hits apiece.
Colin Janison (Las Vegas, Nev.), making his tenth start of the season, took a no-decision, lasting just 5.2 innings in surrendering eight runs, five earned, on 12 hits and three walks while striking out seven. Dominican's bullpen allowed four runs over the final 3.1 innings on seven hits.
Quinten Hayes (Indianapolis, Ind.) took the loss, falling to 1-1 on the season.
Game Two: Dominican 6, Lakeland 4
Tied 2-2 in the fifth, Dominican scored four runs in the bottom of the inning to score a 6-4 win over the Muskies.
Joe Kukla (Chicago, Ill.) led off the rally with a double down the left field line and then scored when Janison singled to center. A pop out and stolen base later, Schuster doubled to the gap in left-center to plate Janison and then went first-to-third on a single by Mike Piotrowski. Hicks plated the third run of the inning when he singled up the middle and
Mike Piotrowski (Arlington Heights, Ill.) later came across on a Lakeland wild pitch.
On the mound,
Quinlan Milne Rojek (Minneapolis, Minn.) tossed his second complete game of the season, surrendering just four runs on ten hits and two walks while striking out three. The senior improved to 2-4 with the win.
Offensively, Schuster collected another two hits, a pair of doubles, while driving in his team-best 27
th and 28
th runs of the season.