PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. --- Eight is great, but the University of St. Francis baseball team was hoping to extend its winning streak to nine games on Friday afternoon to move ever so closer to the top of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference standings.  Instead, the Fighting Saints had to settle for a split decision with Trinity Christian College – winning the opener 3-2 before dropping the nightcap 5-4 –to remain one game behind front-running St. Ambrose University with six games remaining.

USF (18-24, 13-8 CCAC) made the most of its hits in Game 1 with three of the four driving in runs after two outs before holding off a late rally by Trinity Christian (19-21, 14-8).  In the nightcap, it was the Trolls that had to stave off the Saints after building an initial 4-0 lead.

Game 1: USF 3, Trinity Christian 2
St. Francis opened the key series by scoring right off the bat.  An Eric Maffie single and stolen base set up Luke Ketchum's two-out RBI single in the first inning.

USF's other two hits both proved crucial in the fourth inning when John McGuire and Brayan Hidalgo both went back-to-back with two-out home runs to extend the lead to 3-0.

Cruising along through the first six innings, where he allowed just three hits, St. Francis starter Sam Pileggi (3-1) got into trouble to start the seventh inning.  Back-to-back doubles got the hosts on the scoreboard and ended Pileggi's day.

Another RBI single followed to make it a 3-2 game before McGuire stemmed the tide with a fielder's choice followed by a game-ending strikeout/caught-stealing double play to record his third save of the season.

Pileggi struck out five batters in his six-plus innings, while walking one and allowing the two runs and five hits.

Jake Ostrowski (4-3) was saddled with the loss despite allowing just the four hits, while striking out 13 batters in only six innings.

Game 2: Trinity Christian 5, USF 4
Neither team could muster up much offense through the first four innings, combining for just three hits. 

A two-out walk eventually sparked a Trinity Christian rally in the fourth inning when the Trolls put together three straight hits to go up 3-0.  They would add one more run in the sixth inning before the Saints' bats woke up.

Having only one batter over the minimum through the first six innings, USF collected two hits and took advantage of some Trinity Christian wildness on the mound (two walks, one hit batsman) to cut the deficit in half on a Jake LaSota single and a Gio Pappas sacrifice fly.  The Saints, however, left more potential runs on the bases when they left them loaded to end the inning.

Trinity Christian then picked up what proved to be an all-important insurance run on a wild pitch in the seventh inning before the Saints put together a pair of rallies in the eighth and ninth innings.

Maffie homered to make it a 5-3 game in the eighth inning before USF loaded the bases in the ninth.  The Saints, however, would only get one run on a sacrifice fly that was sandwiched around a foul out and a game-ending groundout.

Alex Martinez and Brayan Hidalgo both had two hits for the Saints.

Notes: In one of the tightest conference races in recent years, just 1 ½ games separate the top six teams in the league with seven or fewer games remaining for each of those clubs.  St. Ambrose University currently sits in the top spot, one-half game ahead of both Trinity Christian and Olivet Nazarene University, one game in front of St. Francis and 1.5 games ahead of both Saint Xavier University and Indiana University South Bend … Hidalgo led USF with three hits on the day.  Maffie was the only other Saint to register a hit in each end of the twinbill … Maffie's 14th home run of the season in Game 2 moved him into a tie for ninth-place on the all-time single-season list with Adam VanderWoude (1994), Rick Peterson (1981) and Tim Ramian (1977) … Not only did St. Francis have its season-best eight-game winning streak snapped, it also had its string of four straight games scoring in double figures come to an end … Dan Gusel's 10-game streak of reaching base ended in Game 1 … The three-game set concludes on Saturday at 1 pm at Duly Health and Care Field.

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