The Dominican University baseball team returned to the friendly confines of Schaumburg Boomers Stadium on Monday, splitting a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference (NACC) twin bill with the Aurora University Spartans, handing the Spartans their first conference loss with a 9-5 win in game one before Aurora took the nightcap, 7-3. With the split, the Stars move to 12-10 on the season and 6-2 in league play.
"We had a nice win in game one against a quality program—top 30/35 team," said Steve Hardman, the Stars' head baseball coach. "Trevor Fulmer threw a good game. He didn't have his best stuff but grinded it out for seven innings for us and gave us a chance to win a ballgame. We took advantage of some of their mistakes and got some big hits also. I was real proud of the way our guys played."
"In game two, we dodged some bullets early…the game could have gotten out of hand. With five errors and as many walks as we gave up, we really gave away an opportunity to sweep a quality conference opponent. We had some opportunities late to put across runs but couldn't execute our small game—made mistakes on the bases and couldn't get down sacrifice bunts. However, in the grand scheme of things, we went 3-1 again on the weekend and that's going to put us in a good spot to play some meaningful games in May if we continue to do that."
The Stars will take a break from NACC play on Thursday, hosting the Rose-Hulman Fighting Engineers for a 3:00 p.m. game at Boomers Stadium.
Game One: Dominican 9, Aurora 5
Trevor Fulmer worked seven innings, surrendering four runs, two earned, on 11 hits and two walks while striking out three to pick up his first collegiate victory on the mound, improving to 1-1 on the season in his fourth start of the season.
Dominican staked its freshman pitcher to an eight-run lead after two innings, rallying for eight runs on four hits and three Aurora errors in the bottom of the second. The Spartans' Chris Roycroft worked into his own jam in the inning, hitting
Camron Stafford with the first pitch of the inning before
Mason Baker worked a walk after falling behind in the count 0-2.
Tyler Trojan then helped load the bases when he reached on a bunt single.
Bryant Bagshaw followed with an RBI single up the middle. Two more runs came across when
Kevin Evans reached on an error by Roycroft before a walk by
Ryan Simak loaded the bases again.
Johnny Condron followed with an RBI single to right-center before
Frankie Sessa reached on another Spartan error, allowing Evans to score. After a strikeout, Stafford bounced out to second allowing Simak to cross the plate. Baker followed with a single to right, scoring Condron with Sessa taking advantage of another Aurora miscue in the field, coming around for the eighth run of the inning.
Aurora cut the Stars' lead in half in the top of the third before Fulmer buckled down and gutted through the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings without surrendering another run.
Noah Loeffler came on in relief, working a one-two-three eighth before Dominican tacked on insurance run in the bottom of the inning when Simak singled to right, scoring Evans.
The Spartans managed to scratch across an unearned run in the top of the ninth before Loeffler got Jeffrey Mayes to ground out to Bagshaw at third to end the game.
The Stars pounded out ten hits in the winning effort, including five at the top of the order with Simak going 3-for-4 with a walk and Condron finishing the game 2-for-5.
Game Two: Aurora 7, Dominican 4
The Spartans broke a 2-2 tie in the top of the fourth when Davis Purviance tripled off the wall in left-center and then scored when Jett Wedekind flew out to center. Aurora then tacked on two more in the top of the fifth and another run in the top of the sixth, opening a 7-2 lead.
Mike Piotrowski sparked a two-run sixth for the Stars, doubling to left-center and later scoring on a throwing error when Tyler Trojan swiped second with Piotrowski at third. Trojan later came around with the help of a passed ball and a wild pitch.
After a scoreless top of the seventh for the Spartans, the Stars looked ready to rally again in the seventh with Condron singling up the middle before Sessa was hit with an 0-2 breaking ball. With Piotrowski at the plate, Aurora's AJ Gill made a diving catch of an attempted sacrifice bunt, starting a 3-4-6 triple play for the Spartans to end the threat.
After Aurora squashed the seventh-inning rally, the Stars went down in order in the eighth and ninth innings as Nick Mathey picked up the save for the Spartans.
Brandon Lozano took the loss on the mound for Dominican, giving up three runs, just one earned, on six hits and a walk over three-plus innings of relief.
The Stars had ten more hits in the nightcap, including two apiece for Simak, Condron and Trojan while
Mike Buckley hit his first home run of the season.
