The Dominican University baseball team saw their 2017 campaign come to a close on Friday at Kapco Park in Mequon, Wisconsin, falling 2-1 to the MSOE Raiders , eliminating the Stars from the 2017 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) Tournament.
"If you told me coming into the tournament that we would give up six runs in our first two games, I would have said we would be 2-0," commented Steve Hardman, the Stars' head coach. "That just wasn't the case for us. I'm proud with the way we finished the season—winning eight of our last ten games and being extremely competitive with the league's best in the conference tournament."
Daniel Supple tossed the Stars second straight complete-game in the tournament, surrendering just two runs on 12 hits while walking just two and striking out nine. Supple falls to 7-2 and on the season, closing out a record-setting season for the senior right-hander that set the program's single-season mark for wins.
The Stars managed just four hits off of the Raiders' Michael Boehmer who improved to 6-1 on the season, surrendering just one run while striking out nine and walking none.
The Stars took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second. Freshman
Frankie Sessa led off the frame with a single to centerfield and then went first to third when
Joe Kukla singled to right a hitter later. Sessa then crossed as
Mike Piotrowski bounced into a fielder's choice.
MSOE answered in to the top of the fourth, stringing together three hits, including a pair of bunt singles, to open the inning before Andres Oselio plated Garrett Willems on a sacrifice fly. Max Kemp then gave the Raiders the lead on the very next at-bat, laying down a squeeze bunt to score D.J. Ellifson.
The inning closed out the day's scoring as Supple and Boehmer combined to hang 11 consecutive zeros to end the game.
"Today was a classic pitcher's duel," continued Hardman. "[Dan] Supple threw about as well as you can—he's done that all year for us. We just could not get base runners or apply any pressure on them."
The Stars close the season 19-23, going 13-7 during the second half of the season after opening the year with just six wins in their first 22 games. The Stars averaged better than 7.5 runs per game over the final three weeks of the season while Dominican's pitchers limited their opponents to just over four runs per game while posting a 3.79 earned run average.
"It is always hard to say goodbye to seniors that have helped build your program," said Hardman. "I want to thank our seniors for their contributions to our program."
"Looking ahead, we are excited for next year. We return eight of our nine starters and two of our top three pitchers," continued Hardman. "With that in mind, our goal is to be back in the tournament next year and be the last team standing."
