Baseball
Clinches WHAC Title With Sunday Sweep
April 20, 2008
GAME ONE BOX |
GAME TWO BOX
LIVONIA, Mich. –
The Madonna baseball team clinched the 2008 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic
Conference championship on Sunday with a pair of shut out wins over visiting
Aquinas College at Ilitch Ballpark. MU took game one 2-0 before closing out the
sweep with a 3-0 win in the night cap. With the wins the Crusaders are now 29-11
overall and 16-4 in WHAC play. The Saints fall to 14-23 overall and 6-12 in loop
action.
GAME
ONE
Madonna scored all of the runs it would need in the third inning as Drew
Adamiec (Walled Lake, Mich.) led off with a single. Levi Cheshire
(Troy, Mich.) followed two batters later with a double to move courtesy runner
Mike Ganser (Lake in the Hills, Ill.) to third for Shawn Little
(Canton, Mich.). The Crusader right fielder delivered a single to left that
scored both Cheshire and Ganser for a 2-0 MU lead.
MU
starter Eric Wendling (New Lothrop, Mich.) had allowed just three hits
heading into the top of the seventh but back-to-back walks forced head coach
Greg Haeger to go to his bull pen and bring in closer John McCracken
(Pinckney, Mich.) to try and nail down the save.
McCracken did just that, as a pair of fielder’s choices erased two Saints and
McCracken took care of the final out himself, striking out pinch hitter Kennon
Less for the third out and his team best seventh save of the season.
Wendling
picked up his third win of the season against just one loss. Marc Sobota took
the loss for AQ, falling to 0-3. Cheshire was the only Crusader with multiple
hits while Little provided the RBIs with his pair.
GAME
TWO
The night cap saw Madonna put up a run in the bottom of the first inning as
Cheshire hit a one-out triple to the base of the wall in center and came home on
a Kevin Zerbo (Farmington, Mich.) single two batters later for the 1-0
lead.
Crusader
starter Richard Lindquist (Tecumseh, Ont.) worked himself out of
trouble in the second, using a strike out and a fielder’s choice to over come a
single and an MU error to keep the game 1-0 in favor of Madonna.
After
Lindquist allowed back-to-back hits to open the sixth, Haeger again went to the
pen and brought in Carl McDevitt (Canton, Mich.). The senior
righty used two fielder’s choices – the first erases the lead runner, Less and
the second erased Kevin Scholten - before Todd Peters grounded out to Pat
Kenny (Utica, Mich.) at third to end the inning and keep it 1-0 MU and give
McDevitt a hold.
The
Madonna bats gave the pitching staff a little insurance in the bottom of the
inning as Little led off with a single to left and stole second. After Kenny was
given the intentional free pass, Dave Herrick (Livonia, Mich.) singled to
score Little and make it 2-0. Zack McMillin (Grand Ledge, Mich.) singled
home Kenny for a 3-0 MU lead heading into the seventh.
Haeger
called upon McCracken for the second time on the day and the senior induced Jon
Good into a ground out and struck out pinch hitter Jon Weltin and Jon Morse for
the final two outs to give the Crusaders the WHAC title, their third in four
seasons.
Lindquist got the win, his fourth of the season while McCracken added his eight
save of the season, just one away from tying the single season record held by
current assistant coach Kyle Fedorka.
The
Crusaders are now off until Saturday when they host Concordia to start a
four-game set with the Cards. First pitch at Ilitch Ballpark is set for 1pm.
Contact:
Patrick Moore - Director of Media Relations
(734) 432-5834
