ROMEOVILLE, Ill. – Lewis University's baseball team swept Purdue Northwest 5-4 and 26-1 in its home opener on Sunday afternoon Brennan Field. The Flyers improve to 4-8-1 while the Pride drops to 10-3.
Game 1 – Lewis 5, Purdue Northwest 4
PNW took the lead with a run in the third inning. Two throwing errors began the inning and then with two outs Tyler Schultz doubled to left to drive in Hayden Matulich. Gannon Andrews also tried to score on the play but he was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
Lewis rallied in the fourth scoring four runs on a hit and two errors.
Patrick Keaty (South Elgin, Ill./South Elgin) drove in the first run reaching on a fielder's choice to drive in
Michael Alt (Kimberly, Wis./Kimberly) with the tying run.
David Ascencio (Joliet, Ill./Plainfield Central) scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch, Keaty would score when
Gavin Kriegel (Hampshire, Ill./Hampshire) reached on an error by the left fielder and
Thomas Fox (Norfolk, Va./Norfolk Christian) scored on
Kevin Barry's (Bartlett, Ill./South Elgin) groundout to second.
The Pride tied the game in the fifth scoring three runs on three hits. Schultz had the big hit in the inning driving in two with a double to right center. The tying run scored on a balk by
Jake Lotz (Palos Hills, Ill./St. Laurence).
The Flyers regained the lead in its half of the fifth. They had runners on first and third with one out and
Joe Preusser (Orland Park, Ill./Brother Rice) drove in the game-winning run with a ground out to short which allowed
Julian Everett (Frankfort, Ill/Lincoln Way East) cross the plate.
Lotz, pitching in relief of
Jake Karaba (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley), struck out all seven batters he faced in his 2.1 innings of work to pick up his first win of the season.
Lewis was held to four hits in the contest with Ascencio leading the way with two while Fox and Barry had one each.
Game 2 – Lewis 26, Purdue Northwest 1 7 innings
Purdue Northwest loaded the bases with one out in the top of the first but only got one run on Matulich's sac fly to right scoring Ethan Imlich.
The Flyers responded in its half of the first sending 17 batters to the plate and scored 11 runs on seven hits and three errors. Everett hit a grand slam to right to give Lewis the lead and then two batters later Preusser hit a two-run bomb to right to make it 6-1. Everett drove in two more later in the inning with a single up the middle with the bases loaded.
Lewis added two more in the third, seven in the fourth, two in the fifth and capped it with four in the sixth.
The Flyers hit five home runs in the contest with Preusser and
Davey Fitzpatrick (Frankfort, Ill./Lincoln-Way East) hitting two each. 11 players had at least one hit in the contest with nine of them recording multiple hits. Fox led the way in the nightcap with four hits in six at-bats.
Everett drove in six runs while Preusser and Fitzpatrick drove in four apiece.
Ben Davis (Homer Glen, Ill./Lockport Township) pitched the first five innings allowing a run on six hits with five strikeouts to improve to 2-1 on the season.
Chad Cwik (Hometown, Ill./Oak Lawn) and
Kurt Dankovich (Homer Glen, Ill./Providence) each tossed a scoreless inning.
Lewis returns to the diamond this Friday (March 25) as it begins Great Lakes Valley Conference play hosting Indianapolis in the start of a four-game weekend series at 2 p.m.
