ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – The Lewis University baseball team dropped a pair of Great Lakes Valley Conference games Sunday (March 21) at Brennan Field, falling to No. 14 Illinois Springfield 13-5 in a game that started Saturday, and 10-8. The Flyers record moves to 5-6 overall, 3-4 in the GLVC, while the Prairie Stars are now 9-2 overall, 5-2 in the GLVC.
 
Michael O'Brien (Joliet, Ill./Joliet Catholic) paced the offensive attack for the Flyers, going 4-for-7 in the two games with three runs scored and four RBI, reaching base six times.

"Today was just a case of too many free bases and errors and any time you make those mistakes and give extra bases and outs to good teams, you're asking for trouble," Lewis head baseball coach Tim McDonough said.
 
Game 1 - Illinois Springfield 13 Lewis 5
The Prairie Stars opened the scoring with a solo home run in the top of the first inning. Lewis evened the score in the bottom half of the inning when Anthony Cavalieri (Western Springs, Ill./Fenwick) reached on a fielding error, which led to Dalton Crowder (Romeoville, Ill./Plainfield East) scoring.
 
After UIS retook the lead on a passed ball in the top of the third inning, the Flyers again came back in the bottom half of the third as Cavalieri singled home O'Brien. Anthony Rios (Lemont, Ill./St. Laurence) then gave the Flyers the lead with a single, scoring Crowder.
 
The deciding inning though came in the fourth when the Prairie Stars pushed across seven runs to take a 9-3 lead. Lewis came back with two runs in the seventh as Cavalieri had a two-run homer, scoring O'Brien, but a grand slam in the eighth by UIS ended the scoring.
 
Cavalieri paced the Flyer attack with two hits and three RBI, while O'Brien and Crowder each scored twice. Mason Coon (1-0) earned the win for Illinois Springfield with 2.2 scoreless innings of relief. Ben Davis (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport Township) (1-1) suffered the loss for Lewis, allowing five hits and five earned runs in 3.1 innings of work.
 
Game 2 – Illinois Springfield 10 Lewis 8
The Prairie Stars broke open the game early, scoring a run in the first and five in the third to take a 6-0 lead. The Flyers got a run back in the bottom of the third when Julian Everett (Frankfort, Ill/Lincoln Way East) singled home Jackson Dvorak (New Lenox, Ill./Providence Catholic).
 
UIS came back with a run in the fourth and three more in the fifth to take a 10-1 advantage, but the Flyers weren't done yet.
 
O'Brien started the rally in the bottom of the fifth when he drove home two runs with a bases loaded single, scoring Everett and Dvorak.
 
The Flyers then nearly made it all the way back in the ninth, scoring five times before their rally fell short. Troy Hajdukovic (Palatine, Ill./Fremd) walked with the bases loaded, scoring Scott Garrow (LaGrange, Ill./Lyons Township). O'Brien then came up again with the bases loaded and drove home two more runs with another base hit as Eric Lucchesi (Chicago, Ill./Lane Tech) and Nick Serr (Minooka, Ill./Minooka) crossed the plate. Michael Alt (Kimberly, Wis./Kimberly) then singled home Hajdukovic.
 
Cavalieri followed with a single, scoring O'Brien, putting the tying run on base and the winning run at the plate. However, a strike out ended the game.
 
Everett and O'Brien (4 RBI) each had three hits to lead Lewis, while Joe Preusser (Orland Park, Ill./Brother Rice) added two hits. Clarke Davenport (1-0) picked up the win for UIS, allowing eight hits and three earned runs in five innings, while Jonathon Hanscom (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) (0-2) took the loss, going three innings, allowing five earned runs on six hits. Jake Lotz (Palos Hills, Ill./St. Laurence), Kurt Dankovich (Homer Glen, Ill./Providence) and Tyler Talbot (Channahon, Ill./Minooka) combined to pitch 4.1 shutout innings of relief, allowing just one hit.

"We did another great job of coming back in the ninth and that's a great trait to have as a team, but we can't rely on that over the course of a long season," McDonough said. "Lotz, Dankovich and Talbot threw great out of the bullpen to give us a chance but we just dug too big of a hole for ourselves."
 
Lewis travels to Missouri-St. Louis for a four game series, which begins Friday (March 26) at 2 p.m.