The Dominican University baseball team opened Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) play on Saturday at Schaumburg Boomers Stadium, dropping a twin bill to the Rockford University Regents, 4-1 and 7-3, to fall to 9-7 on the season and 0-2 in conference play.
In the losses, the Stars stranded a total of 21 runners, leaving eight on base in game one before stranding 13 runners in the nightcap.
"I was really disappointed with the way we came out and played today," commented Steve Hardman, the Stars' head coach. "We were flat and really did not compete. It is never good to be swept in conference, but now we need to come back on Monday and even our record in the league."
After enjoying the Easter holiday on Sunday, Dominican heads to Milwaukee on Monday, taking on the MSOE Raiders in a NACC doubleheader at The Rock Complex. First pitch is slated for 1:00 p.m.
Game One: Rockford 4, Dominican 1
The Stars managed just one run on seven hits and left eight on base in a 4-1 loss to Rockford.
Rockford's Spencer Lentz held the Stars to just one hit through five innings before Dominican took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth.
Ryan Simak led off the inning with a single up the middle and was pushed to second with a sacrifice bunt before
Matt Segovia lined an RBI single to left to score Simak.
Rockford then answered in the top of the seventh, finally breaking through on the Stars'
Colin Janison when Jacob Rillamas looped a two-run single to shallow right with two outs. The Regents then chased Janison from the game in the eighth after Brett Down doubled to lead off the frame and later scored when Austin Smith singled to right.
After the Regents tacked on an insurance run in the top off the ninth, Dominican brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth after
Mike Buckley and
Nathaniel Natividad collected back-to-back one out singles. Rockford's Joseph Kmiec got Dominican's
Alec Coggins swinging before Christian Dahlstrom came on for the final out for his third save of the season.
Suffering the loss, Janison surrendered three runs on nine hits and one walk while striking out eight over 7.2 innings of work, falling to 2-1 on the season.
At the plate, Buckley was on base three times, going 2-for-3 with a walk as the Stars' 6-7-8 hitters combined to go 4-for-9.
Game Two: Rockford 7, Dominican 3
After scoring runs in each of the last three innings of game one, the Rockford offense picked right up in game two, plating two runs in the top of the first off of Dominican's left-hander
George Sherman.
The Stars got one run back in the bottom of the first when
Joe Kukla reached on an error and later scored on a throwing error. Dominican then pulled ahead 3-2 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. Janison notched an RBI single to right with the bases loaded with Kukla coming across for the second time when the ball was mishandled in right.
Dominican could not come up with another big hit the rest of the game, leaving ten on base the rest of the game, including leaving the bases loaded in the fifth and seventh innings while Rockford went on to score five unanswered runs.
Sherman was tagged with the loss, allowing seven runs, five earned, on 12 hits and one walk over 7.1 innings of work.
At the plate, Janison, Segovia and Simak picked up two hits apiece.
