ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Lewis University baseball team held off a late St. Francis rally to defeat the Saints 9-8 Thursday (April 26) in the final home game of the season at Brennan Field.
 
With the win the Flyers move to 17-22-1 on the year, while St. Francis fell to 22-25.
 
The Flyers jumped out quickly to a 4-0 lead after the first inning. Anthony Cavalieri (Western Springs, Ill./Fenwick) singled home a run and then scored on an error off the bat of Ethan Bloom (Schaumburg, Ill./Hoffman Estates). Brandon Post (Elk Grove Village, Ill./Elk Grove) capped off the inning with his first home run of the year over the right center field wall. St. Francis got two runs back in the third inning, but Troy Hajdukovic (Palatine, Ill./Fremd) got both those runs back when he homered for the first time on the season, also to right center, to make it a 6-2 game after the fourth inning.
 
After USF scored twice in the sixth to make it a 6-4 game, the Flyers answered with three in the bottom half of the inning to extend their lead to 9-4. Sam Cybulski (Clarendon Hills, Ill./Lyons Township) doubled home a run, Neal Tyrell (Minooka, Ill./Minooka) singled in Cybulski and Trayvon Johnson (Berkeley, Ill./St. Joseph's) hit a sacrifice fly to right center to score Tyrell. St. Francis scored one run in the eighth and three more in the ninth to make it a 9-8 game. There were runners on the corners with two outs when Brady Kostecki (Joliet, Ill./Joliet Catholic) entered the game. He was able to get the final batter out on a called third strike, securing his sixth save of the season.
 
Tyrell led the offensive attack for Lewis, going 3-for-5, while Cavalieri went 2-for-4. Post had two runs and two RBI. Ryan Ward (Hanover Park, Ill./Hoffman Estates) (1-0) earned the win, going five innings on the mound, allowing six hits and two earned runs, striking out three. Matt McCauley (Oakville, Mo./St. John Vianney) pitched a scoreless inning in relief.
 
The Flyers travel to Oakland City, Ind. to take on Oakland City Saturday (April 28) in a doubleheader, starting at 12 p.m.