JOLIET, Ill. --- Clutch pitching performances from Ryan Daly (FR/Plainfield, Ill.), Colin Kelly (SR/Tinley Park, Ill.), and John McGuire (FR/New Lenox, Ill.) and scoring early proved to be the recipe for success for the University of St. Francis baseball team twice on Monday at the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) Baseball Tournament. Continuing its climb through the elimination bracket, head coach Brian Michalak's club posted a 5-0 shutout of No.2 seed St. Ambrose University before scoring a 4-2 decision over No.7 Roosevelt University.
That makes the No.5-seeded Saints (24-19) one of only three teams still standing in the eight-team field, joined by top-seeded Olivet Nazarene University (32-20) and No.6 seed Saint Xavier University (32-23). Of the three, Saint Xavier remains as the lone unbeaten after defeating Olivet Nazarene 2-1 in extra innings on Monday night.
The Saints will battle the Tigers in another elimination game on Tuesday at 4 pm with the winner facing Saint Xavier at 7 pm.
St. Francis needs wins in each of those two games on Tuesday as well as one on Wednesday to punch its ticket to the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round.
Game 1 --- USF 5, St. Ambrose 0
Starting his first-ever post-season contest, Daly (3-4) made it special by notching his first collegiate shutout, doing so in a timely 1-hour, 48 minutes on 109 pitches. The right-hander allowed only four hits with three being on the infield, including one on a ball lost in the sun. The only other batters to reach base came on a walk and a hit batsman. He struck out four.
The only hit out of the infield off Daly came with one out in the seventh inning. That was also one of only three times St. Ambrose had a runner get as far as second base. The first two times came in the third and fifth innings with two outs and each time Daly was able to get out of the potential threats.
The Saints scored the only runs they needed in the first inning beginning with a sacrifice fly by Josh Tesch (GR/Lockport, Ill.) to plate Travis Schoonover (GR/Braidwood, Ill.) (double). USF's second run came from a hustling Noah Kararo (GR/Oswego, Ill.), who singled, stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and eventually scored on the same play when the catcher's throw sailed high.
Kararo also singled, stole second and scored on a sacrifice fly by Joe McGuire (SR/Lockport, Ill.) in the eighth inning when the Saints added three insurance runs, including one on a wild pitch. The final run, a sacrifice fly from Dolan Nicholson (SR/Denton, Texas), was set up by a Foster Heise (GR/Lisle, Ill.) triple.
Kararo, Tesch and Shawn Harper (GR/Plainfield, Ill.) all collected two hits for the winners.
Game 2 --- USF 4, Roosevelt 2
The Saints got all of their scoring out of the way in the second inning and then watched as Kelly (2-0) and John McGuire teased Roosevelt the rest of the afternoon. Six different times the Lakers put the leadoff man on, but could only score in one frame.
Kelly, who worked out of two jams with double plays, allowed seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts, but only one of the two runs he gave up was earned. Both runs came in the third inning to cut USF's lead in half, 4-2.
John McGuire came on in relief to also make history by recording his first-ever collegiate save with three scoreless innings. He struck out three, while giving up three hits.
Four of USF's seven hits came bunched together in the second inning with Jake LaSota's (JR/Marengo, Ill.) run-scoring single starting the four-run outburst. The other three came after two were out on a wild pitch and a two-run single from Schoonover.
Roosevelt actually outhit St. Francis 10-7 but left nine runners on base.
Heise was the only Saint to register multiple hits, going 2-for-4.
