Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 The College of Lake County Baseball team could feel the sense of urgency going into Tuesday's match up versus the #1 ranked team in the country in NJCAA Division II, Madison College Wolfpack. Madison came into the games 31-3 on the season and riding a 15 game winning streak. The Lancers came into the contests 23-16 and fighting for a Region IV post season birth. The top 8 teams in the region qualify for the post season tournament.
Game one seen both clubs receive excellent pitching from their respective staffs. The Lancers were led by their workhouse, DJ Hess, who threw another complete game gem to give him 6 for the season. Hess mixed his pitches well throughout the game, yielding one run, on five hits, walking two, while striking out four in the victory. The Lancers ace improved his record to 8-3 on the season.
Offensively, the Lancers struck first in the bottom of the third inning when Cole Wilcox started the inning off with a line drive single up the middle. Tyler Swanson moved Wilcox into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. Jacob Kleeman reached first base on an infield single to the second baseman, advancing Wilcox to third base on the play. With runners on the corner it was time for Chris Farina to put down a beautiful squeeze bunt that scored Wilcox and moved Kleeman into scoring position at second base. Kobe Pike then struck with an RBI single, to make the game 2-0, when he ripped a line drive off a fastball into left center.
The Wolfpack answered right back with a run of their own in the next half inning. Gunner Doyle led off the inning reaching base on an infield hit. Doyle's single was followed by Zach Storbakken who flied out to left field for the first out of the inning. Brady Jurgella then reached base with a perfectly placed ground ball in the hole at shortstop to make it first and second for the Wolfpack. Jake Nelson then struck for Madison with a sharply hit RBI single up the middle, scoring Doyle and advancing Jurgella to third base. With runners at first and third, Hess buckled down and got Eduardo Saucedo to hit into the 6-4-3 inning ending double play.
The Lancers tacked on another run in the sixth when Pike scored on wild pitch to make the game 3-1, which would eventually be the final score.
The Lancers went on to win game two in dramatic walk-off fashion, thanks to a walk-off triple off the bat of Freshman, Evan Henry, to topple Madison. This gave the Lancers a sweep of the Wolfpack on the day. College of Lake County trailed 6-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, when they received a spark off the bat of Henry, when he blasted a no-doubt homerun over the right field wall to make the game 6-2. After a quiet fifth inning, the Wolfpack added another run in the top half of the fifth to make the game 7-2. In Lake County's half of sixth inning, led by Sophomores, Kobe Pike and Valentine Cerna Jr. who hit back-to-back singles to give the Lancers runners at first and second. Sophomore, first baseman, Emanuel Andujar then hit a ball with a lot of top spin that Madison's first basemen couldn't make the play on, scoring Pike. Cerna came around to score on play and Andujar was able to advance to second when the Wolfpack's right fielder misplayed the ball.
The Wolfpack went relatively quiet in the top half of the seventh, and Lancers came back to the plate with game on the line and momentum on their side. Trailing 7-4, CLC's Freshman, Tyler Swanson battled through an 11 pitch at-bat that ended with a walk to first base. Swanson then advanced to second base on a wild pitch, as Jacob Kleeman was at the plate. Kleeman would eventually ground out on a sharply hit ball and well executed play by the Wolfpack's short stop to prevent Swanson from advancing to third base. Sophomore, Chris Farina then singled on soft line drive to left field. Pike followed by striking out, making the second out of the inning. The Lancers were given additional life when Cerna Jr. delivered with an RBI single on a hard hit line drive to right field. Clean-up hitter, Emanuel Andujar, then came to the plate and hit what looked to be a game ending ground ball to short stop, however, the Wolfpack defenseman through errantly to first base allowing Farina to score, and placing Lancers runners at 1st and 3rd. Head Coach, Heath Cummings, then pinched ran for Andujar with Sophomore, Omar Wright. Evan Henry, who has been red hot at the plate, delivered for the Lancers when he scorched a ball into the right field corner scoring Cerna Jr. and Wright on the 2-RBI triple for the win.
Austin Vass earned the win in relief, and the Lancers swept the #1 ranked Madison College Wolfpack. The Wolfpack fell to 31-5 on the season, while the Lancers improved their record to 25-16. The Lancers are back in action on Thursday, April 28th when they will host Rock Valley College. The game is scheduled for a 2:00pm first pitch.
