The Dominican University baseball team continued its hot start to the 2019 Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) season on Saturday, scoring a series win over the Benedictine University Eagles with a 5-2 win in game one before taking game two, 8-4. With the wins, the Stars climb to 11-9 overall and 5-1 in NACC play with a league doubleheader with Aurora University on deck for Sunday at Schaumburg Boomers Stadium.
"I'm really proud of the way we played today," said Steve Hardman, the Stars' head baseball coach. "We played with a lot of energy and executed. We prepped all week for two of the better pitchers in our league and executed our game plan offensively flawlessly. We got a great outing from both [Hayden] Young and [Bryant] Bagshaw and [Tyler] Kara got a tough six outs to close out game two. Three outstanding performances on the mound from freshmen.
"We showed glimpses that we can be a very good team. Now we got take some steps in the right direction and believe that we can do that in every conference games. Two more big ones tomorrow and we need to take the same approach."
Game One: Dominican 5, Benedictine 2
Trailing 2-0 after Benedictine scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first, the Stars plated runs in five separate innings to rally for a 5-2 win.
Hayden Young tossed his third complete game of the season on the mound, improving to 2-2 on the season while lowering his ERA to 3.30. Young surrendered just the two first inning runs, working around 11 Benedictine hits.
After a
Kevin Evans' sacrifice fly cut the Eagles' early lead in half in the top of the second,
Mike Piotrowski pulled the Stars even with a solo home run to left in the top of the third. After the Stars pulled in front with an unearned run in the sixth, Evans added to the Stars lead with an RBI double in the eighth before Piotrowski tacked on an insurance tally with an RBI double in the top of the ninth.
In total, the Stars pounded out 11 hits off the Eagles' Ryan Miller and Drake Berman. Piotrowski and
Frankie Sessa led the Stars' offensive charge, collecting three hits a piece including a pair of extra-base hits for Piotrowski.
Game Two: Dominican 8, Benedictine 4
Freshman
Bryant Bagshaw improved to 5-0 on the season after giving up four runs, three earned, on eight hits and one walk over seven innings while striking out four.
Tyler Kara then came on for the final six outs, striking out two and allowing just one two-out single in the eighth.
Benedictine scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first to take an early 2-0 lead before Dominican roared back with four runs in the third and four more in the fourth to open an 8-2 lead. Piotrowski was in the thick of the Dominican rally, roping a bases-clearing double in the top of the third as the Stars pulled ahead 4-2.
The Stars then strung together three hits and took advantage of a pair of Benedictine errors to break the game open in the fourth. After
Tyler Trojan worked a one-out walk,
Mason Baker than laced a run-scoring double to the gap in right-center. After a Benedictine error,
Ryan Simak singled to score Baker.
Johnny Condron followed with an RBI single and Simak later scored on an Eagles' throwing error when Condron stole second.
The Stars picked up ten more hits in game two, two apiece for Simak, Condron and Baker.
