JOLIET, Ill. --- Playing for the first time in two weeks, the University of St. Francis baseball team came out on the short end of a split doubleheader, dropping the first game 8-4 to Calumet College of St. Joseph and the second game by a 3-1 count to Olivet Nazarene University at DuPage Medical Group Field on Sunday. Both games marked the first two conference games this season for the Saints.
USF had opportunities to plug away at early deficits in both contests, but could not come up with any clutch hits to get back in the games. Calumet St. Joseph built up a 5-0 lead after four innings, while Olivet Nazarene scored the only two runs it would need in the first three innings.
St. Francis (2-6, 0-2 CCAC) left 19 runners on base combined over the two games.
Shortstop Noah Kararo (GR/Oswego, Ill.) was the lone Saint to post multiple hits in each contest finishing the day 4-for-8.
Game 1 --- Calumet St. Joseph 8, USF 4
Noah Miller got things done at the top of the Crimson Wave order, going 4-for-5 with four runs batted in and two runs scored. He also produced the big blow with his two-out, three-run home run in the fourth inning to turn a 2-0 lead into a 5-0 contest.
The Saints clawed their way back into the game with a three-run seventh inning to make it 5-3. The two teams then exchanged single runs in each of their next at bats before Calumet St. Joseph (2-11, 2-2) closed things out with a two-run eighth inning.
Designated hitter Josh Tesch (GR/Lockport, Ill.) and center fielder Dolan Nicholson (SR/Denton, Texas) had the only runs batted in for USF with the latter's coming on his first home run of the season in the eighth inning.
Kararo and left fielder Shawn Harper (GR/Plainfield, Ill.) accounted for four of USF's six hits in the game going 2-for-3 each.
Michael Beaudoin (SR/Sycamore, Ill.) (1-1) suffered the loss on the mound for the Saints.
Winning pitcher Ruben Morales had a shutout going one out into the seventh inning before tiring. He allowed just two hits through the first six innings.
Game 2 --- Olivet Nazarene 3, USF 1
In the nightcap, Olivet Nazarene (8-11, 1-0) took advantage of a pair of errors by the Saints to score its first two runs. That made for a tough-luck loss for Angel Sandoval (SR/Garfield Ridge, Ill.) (0-2), who scattered five hits over his five innings, while striking out three batters opposite one walk.
Both teams left ten runners on the bases with the Saints stranding a pair in the third and fourth innings and the bases loaded in the fifth inning.
Harper drove home the only Saint run on a groundout to score Nicholson.
USF outhit Olivet Nazarene 9-6 thanks to three base knocks from first baseman Joe McGuire (SR/Lockport, Ill.) and two from Kararo.
The Saints and Olivet Nazarene complete their three-game series on Monday (March 22) when they meet up again at DuPage Medical Group Field for a 3 pm doubleheader.
