The Dominican University baseball team got back to work in the Wheaton Round Robin on Friday, topping the Concordia College (MN) Cobbers, 2-0, in game one before falling to the host Wheaton College Thunder, 5-2, in the Stars' weekend finale. The Stars, now 9-5 on the season, will open Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play next Saturday, hosting the Rockford University Regents for a twin bill at Schaumburg Boomers Stadium.
Game One: Dominican 2, Concordia-Moorhead 0
Colin Janison twirled a one-hit shutout and scored what proved to be the game-winning run in the fifth inning to lead the Stars to a 2-0 win over the Cobbers.
Janison carried a no-hitter on the mound into the top of the ninth before Nate Sillerud led off the inning with a single to right. After a walk to Grant Toivonen, Janison retired the next three hitters to close out the complete-game effort and improve to 2-0 on the season.
"Colin threw about as good of a game as a pitcher can," said Steve Hardman, the Stars' head baseball coach. "He had all his pitches working; was working ahead on all batters; and spotted all of his pitches. Losing a no-hitter in the ninth is tough, but we got the win and I know that's all he cares about."
Janison led off the home half of the fourth with a single to left and then stole second before reaching third on a balk by Concordia's starter, Alex Erickson.
Frankie Sessa then grounded out to second, allowing Janison to cross, giving the Stars a 1-0 advantage.
Dominican added an insurance run in the sixth when
Matt Segovia lined a one-out single up the middle. Janison moved Segovia into scoring position when he hit behind the runner, rolling out to second, setting the table for an RBI single to right-center for Sessa, plating Segovia.
Janison faced the minimum into the top of the seventh before working around a Dominican error in the top of the seventh. The senior right-hander struck out four in the win while issuing just one walk.
Game Two: Wheaton 5, Dominican 2
The Stars opened a 2-0 lead after three innings behind a first inning RBI single from Janison and a third inning RBI single from Sessa but left ten runners on base and committed three errors in the field in a 5-2 loss to the Thunder.
Freshman lefty
George Sherman took to the mound in game two, surrendering four runs, two earned, on eight hits and two walks in 5.2 innings of work. The rookie took the loss, falling to 2-2 on the season.
Trailing 2-0, the Thunder scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth to pull in front. Graham Core started the rally with a one-out single to left center. After Core stole second a Dominican error put runners at the corners for Jesse Welch. Welch singled to center to score Graham. After a groundout put runners at second and third, a passed ball tied the game at 2-2 before a second Stars' fielding miscue allowed the Thunder to take the lead.
Wheaton then chased Sherman from the game in the sixth when Welch doubled down the left field line, scoring Graham to extend the Thunder lead to 4-2.
After Wheaton added an insurance run in the seventh, Dominican managed to bring the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth thanks to a pair of walks, but Janison, already with two hits in the game, popped out to first to end the threat.
"We jumped out to an early lead and had a lot of energy," said Hardman, "but unfortunately we squandered some scoring opportunities and gave them some unearned runs. We didn't come out of the day with the sweep like we hoped, but we were battle-tested for our conference season that starts next week."
