JOLIET, Ill. --- The number 13 turned out to be an unlucky one for the University of St. Francis baseball team on Sunday as Lewis University rang up 13 runs in each end of a doubleheader to ruin both the Saints' season and home openers by 13-8 and 13-0 counts.
 

By days' end, the guests would also total 31 hits off 14 St. Francis pitchers.
 

The Saints produced a double-figure hit total in the opener when they rallied to get within 9-8 with ten hits.
 

Noah Kararo (GR/Oswego, Ill.) and Foster Heise (GR/Lisle, Ill.) led St. Francis' offense with three hits each. Kararo also drove in a pair of runs with a triple in the first game.
 

Game 1 --- Lewis 13, USF 8
 

Lewis was cruising along after building a 9-0 through the first five innings only to have the Saints counter late with a three-run sixth inning and a five-run eighth. USF also had the tying run on third base in the latter frame before the Flyers added four more insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning.
 

Liam Higgins (FR/New Lenox, Ill.) and Kararo had the big knocks for the Saints with back-to-back two-run hits in the five-run eighth inning. 
 

Heise went 3-for-5 with a run batted in, while Travis Schoonover (GR/Braidwood, Ill.) was 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
 

Lewis countered with four players with multiple hits, including Austin Tittle (3-for-5) and Joe Preusser (2-for-5), who drove in three runs each.
 

Brad Littleton worked the first five scoreless innings to earn the victory. He struck out six batters, while permitting only two hits and one walk.
 

Angel Sandoval (SR/Garfield Ridge, Ill.) suffered the loss for the Saints on the mound.
 

Game 2 --- Lewis 13, USF 0
 

A 1-0 game through the first three innings, Lewis scored at least one run in the fourth through ninth innings capped off by a five-run ninth to cruise to the second-game win with its 17-hit attack. Jackson Dvorak drove in four of the Flyers' runs with a pair of hits, while Anthony Cavalieri and Anthony Rios continued where they left off in Game 1.
 

Cavalieri went 4-for-5 in the nightcap as part of a 6-for-9 day with five runs scored and two runs batted. Rios went 5-for-9 with three runs batted in over the two contests.
 

In similar fashion to Littleton in the opener, Jake Karaba pitched five shutout innings for the win. He held the Saints to one hit in that span, while striking out seven against only one walk.
 

Kararo provided two of the five hits in the St. Francis lineup.
 

Nick Villasenor (SR/Addison, Ill.) took the loss on the mound.

The Saints head to Crestwood, Ill. and Ozinga Field on Tuesday (March 2) for a non-conference doubleheader against Roosevelt University beginning at 1 pm.