Crusaders
Take Outright WHAC Title with Split
April 25, 2008
GAME 1 BOX
SCORE |
GAME 2 BOX
SCORE
ANN
ARBOR, Mich.
- - The Madonna University baseball team secured the outright WHAC regular
season championship with a 4-1 victory over Concordia in game one of a double
header split Friday afternoon.
The crown
is the first for MU since 2006 and came on the same day that MU reached the
coveted 30-win mark and senior John McCracken (Pinckney, Mich.) tied the school
single season record for saves with his ninth.
GAME
ONE RECAP
The Crusaders fell behind early in game one as the host Cardinals got to MU ace
Will Kennedy (Westland, Mich.) with a run in the opening frame and carried their
1-0 lead into the fifth inning.
In the
fifth, the MU bats awoke scoring four times. Drew Fry came through with a
game tying single to right and Ryan Morrow delivered a perfect squeeze bunt to
give MU a 2-1 lead. The Crusaders tacked on two more thanks to a rare
fielding error by Cardinals shortstop Tony Pounders off the bat of Sean Little
that plated Fry and Morrow.
That
inning would prove to be enough as Kennedy fanned five over six innings of work
before giving way to McCracken for a perfect seventh inning and his record tying
ninth save of the season.
The win
gave MU win number 30 on the year and their third conference regular season
title in the last four years.
GAME TWO
RECAP
In game two, reigning national pitcher of the week Jeff Sonnenberg allowed six
runs through four innings of work as Concordia climbed out to a 6-1 lead that
the Crusaders could not recover from.
MU tried
to mount a comeback with a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth, cutting
the lead to 6-4. MU then managed to load the bases with one out in the
seventh, and after a Levi Cheshire fielders choice put Concordia just one out
away, Kevin Zerbo stepped up and launched what would have been the go-ahead home
run that was caught at the wall to seal the Concordia win,
The split
moves Madonna to 30-12 on the season, 17-5 in conference play heading into
Saturday's conference finale at Ilitch Ballpark. The Crusaders will host
the Cardinals to finish the season series on Senior Day, first pitch is
scheduled for 1:00 pm with senior day festivities being conducted between games
of the double header.
Contact:
Matt Fancett - Assistant AD - Media Relations
(734) 432-5610
