PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. --- John McGuire delivered five hits, Drew Dant tallied four and both players drove in three runs as the University of St. Francis baseball team put up nine runs in each end of a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader to defeat Trinity Christian College 9-3 in Game 1 and 9-8 in 10 innings in Game 2. 

Jake Merda also proved to be clutch in the nightcap, where he authored three hits and four runs batted in.

On the pitching side, Mack Malczewski recorded his first complete-game win of the season, while Zac Blazekovich notched his first victory of the campaign.

The Fighting Saints (21-15, 19-5 CCAC) took three of four games from the Trolls (22-22, 14-12) in the weekend series to improve to 9-1 over their last ten games and maintain a three-game lead over Saint Xavier University for the top spot in the conference standings with eight games to play.

 Game 1: USF 9, Trinity Christian 3
The Saints scored in five of the first six innings to offset Trinity Christian's two-run first inning en route to the win.  Dant had a two-run triple in the opening inning, while Jake Klepacz plated another two runs with his single in the fifth inning.  Dant's other hit was a double.

McGuire went 3-for-3 at the top of the order with two runs scored and two driven in.

Josh Kirnbauer (sacrifice fly) and Cliff Vickers (double) had the other RBIs.

Malczewski produced his longest stint of the season, going all seven innings with seven strikeouts to up his record to 4-2 on the campaign.

Game 2: USF 9, Trinity Christian 8 --- 10 Innings
Merda delivered clutch RBIs in both the eighth and tenth innings to lead the Saints to the come-from-behind victory.  USF had to rally twice, trailing 4-1 the first time and 7-5 the second time after taking a 5-4 lead in between.

After Trinity Christian jumped out of the gate with three runs in the first inning and led 4-1 after two frames, Merda and Max Montgomery got the Saints back in the contest with RBIs on a double and bunt single, respectively, in the third inning.

St. Francis put up another two runs in the fifth inning to take its first lead of the game on the second double of the contest by Dant.  That, however, was wiped out by Carter Chaney's two-run home run in sixth inning followed by another Troll run later on.

Re-enter Merda to the rescue with his two-run double in the eighth inning to knot the score at seven-all.  Kirnbauer then started the tenth-inning rally with a single.  He eventually went to second on a wild pitch and third on a sacrifice bunt by Alex Mielcarz.  Merda then drove him in with the go-ahead run on a fielding error with McGuire following up with an RBI single.

Trinity Christian made things interesting in the bottom of the tenth inning with three of the first four batters reaching base and the Trolls having the tying run at third base with only one out.  Dant, in relief, got out of the jam with back-to-back strikeouts to end the game and register his third save of the season.

Prior to Dant's insertion onto the mound, Blazekovich slowed down the Trinity Christian offense, allowing just one run and two hits in four innings of relief.  That helped him notch his first victory of the year.

Merda finished going 3-for-5 with the four runs batted in.  McGuire, Montgomery, Dant and Vickers all added to the 14-hit attack with two hits apiece.

Trinity Christian, which totaled 17 hits, left 14 runners on base for the game.

Notes: Dant and McGuire continue to battle it out for the longest reaching-base streak.  Dant is now at 23 games and McGuire 20 after their successful days on Saturday … McGuire also took over the team lead with the longest hitting streak (16 contests), breaking a tie at 14 games with Dant … The Saints are 15-0 when scoring at least eight runs in a game this year … Saturday's second game was the first extra-inning affair of the season ... USF is right back at it on Sunday with a 1 pm makeup doubleheader against St. Ambrose University at NelsonCorp Field in Clinton, Iowa.   

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