ADRIAN, Mich.
– The Madonna baseball team used a two-run home run from senior
shortstop Levi Cheshire in each ends of their double-header at Siena
Heights run their winning streak to seven games and earn the season
sweep of the Saints, 5-3 and 8-4 Wednesday afternoon.
GAME
1
The visiting
Crusaders jumped on top early on the strength of RBI singles from Kevin Zerbo,
Pat Kenny and Mike Gansser to take a 3-0 lead in the opening frame.
The
Saints would come back for one in their half of the first of MU starter Ryan
Bardoni and then two more in the third on a two-run homer by Nate Pepper to tie
the game 3-3.
Bardoni
and SHU starter Jack Cross dueled their way to the seventh with the score still
tied when Cheshire launched his third home run of the season, giving MU a 5-3
advantage. It would prove to be the game winner at John McCracken came on to
earn his sixth save of the year with a flawless seventh inning.
Bardoni
(1-3) picked up the win, his first of the season, scattering nine hits over six
innings of work with a strikeout.
GAME
2
In the night cap,
the Crusader fell behind early on a RBI groundout by Tim Stoddard of MU starter
Keegan Beaton to take a 1-0 lead after one inning.
Dave
Fraser blanked MU in the first two inning but ran into trouble in the third as
MU scored twice on Cheshire’s second home run of the day, his fourth of the
season to take a 2-1 lead.
MU
struck for two more in the fourth on a two-run homer by Dave Herrick, his first
of the season, staking the Crusaders to a 4-1 advantage.
The
Madonna bats weren’t done there, scoring three more times in the fifth on a
three-run blast by Pat Kenny, his seventh of the season, pulling him back into a
tie with Zerbo for the team lead.
SHU cut
the lead to 7-4 with three runs in the bottom of the fifth off Beaton, two
courtesy of Stoddard’s double to left-center giving him three RBIs on the day.
Carl
McDevitt came on for the final two innings of work, allowing just one hit to
earn his first save of the season as MU went on to add a insurance run in the
seventh to take the game 8-4.
Zack
McMillin and Drew Fry joined Little and Kenny with two-hits each, Kenny also
added four RBIs in the victory.
Beaton
picked up the mound win striking out three in five innings of work while
allowing three earned runs.
With
the sweep, Madonna (26-10, 13-3 WHAC) increased their WHAC lead to four games
over Indiana Tech and five over Concordia with today’s sweep and Tech’s
double-header split at Concordia.
MU is
back in action Saturday when they travel to Grand Rapids to face Aquinas College
before heading home Sunday to close the season series with the Saints.
