JOLIET, Ill. --- One down, two to go for the University of St. Francis in its bid to claim at least a share of its first Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference baseball title since 2015 after Nate Maliska's walk-off single in the 10th inning rallied the Fighting Saints to an improbable 3-2 victory over Olivet Nazarene University on Friday afternoon at Duly Health and Care Field.

Maliska's two-out single to centerfield capped off a wild final two innings for the Saints, who initially fell behind 2-0 after four innings.  He drove home Jake Vera, who walked with one out and went to third base on Eric Maffie's two-out single to right centerfield.

Watch Maliska's Big Hit: https://twitter.com/i/status/1652091309513998337

One inning earlier, USF (22-24, 17-8 CCAC) took advantage of one-out, back-to-back errors to force extra innings with Maliska again being the focal point.  Trailing 2-1 heading into the frame, a dropped popup off his bat opened the door for the Saints and eventually forced extra innings.

Max Montgomery came in to pinch run for Maliska and advanced two bases when Luke Ketchum laid down a bunt in front of the mound that he beat out.  The late throw attempting to get Ketchum sailed high, sending him to second base and putting Montgomery at third base.

John McGuire was then intentionally walked before Brayan Hidalgo tied the contest at two-all with his sacrifice fly to centerfield.  Olivet Nazarene (24-22, 14-11) escaped further damage with a forceout to end the inning.

A pair of hits to open both the second and fourth innings for Olivet Nazarene eventually led to single runs and a 2-0 lead.  The Saints cut that deficit in half in the sixth inning on a sacrifice fly by Alex Martinez to score Montgomery.  He ran for Dan Gusel, who was hit by a pitch to open the inning, moved to second on a sacrifice by Vera and advanced to third on a balk.

Maffie accounted for three of USF's six hits in the contest, including a double.

Sam Pileggi gained the start on the mound and held Olivet Nazarene to the two runs on six hits through seven innings.  Quinn McGuire allowed only two runners to reach base in his three scoreless innings of work.  He retired the final six batters he faced to bump his record up to 4-3 on the season.

Notes: What started as a seven-team race for first place on the final weekend of the CCAC regular season dropped down to five teams after both Olivet Nazarene and Roosevelt University were eliminated from contention following their setbacks on Friday.  St. Ambrose University and Saint Xavier University remained one-half game in back of the Saints with Trinity Christian College and Indiana University South Bend being two games back … USF has now won four in a row and 12 of its last 13 games, not to mention eight in a row at home … Ketchum, John McGuire and Hidalgo all reached base for the ninth consecutive game, which is a season high for the latter two … Quinn McGuire joined Sean Michalak and Jacob Jurka for the most pitching wins on the club with four … The two teams square off in a doubleheader beginning at noon on Saturday in Bourbonnais to wrap up the regular season.    

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