PALOS HEIGHTS, Ill. -- The University of St. Francis baseball team scored nine runs, but Trinity Christian College stormed back from a 9-4 deficit to earn a 10-9 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference walk-off victory on Monday afternoon to wrap up its four-game series with the Trolls at Schaaf Athletic Complex in Palos Heights, Ill.  The game was a continuation of the two teams' suspended contest from March 14.

Six different players contributed to USF's eight total hits with Dylan Scafuri (2-for-2, 1 RBI) and Ethan Fleming (2-for-4, 2 RBI) leading the way with two hits apiece.

The Saints (10-16, 7-5 CCAC) scored six unearned runs in the first inning to take an initial 4-0 lead before the Troll bats came alive to the tune of 13 hits and 10 runs before all was said and done.  Ty Chaney, Jr. led the way for TCC, going 3-for-3 with two runs scored and one run batted in.

USF took advantage of four Trinity Christian errors to score its six runs in the first inning.  The initial run of the game was scored before the suspension of play via a Ryan Louthan single that occurred after two of the previous three Saint batters reached base via TCC defensive mistakes.  When play resumed on Monday, the Saints successfully authored a double steal to score Dominik Alberico before Fleming connected for a double down the right field line to push USF's third run across the plate.  The fourth and fifth runs were the result of another defensive miscue, while the sixth was credited to Mitchell Thomas with his RBI single to right center.

After Trinity Christian (12-14, 6-8) opened its half of the inning with four runs of its own, the Saints came back to put up two more runs in the second inning with RBIs from Louthan, Scafuri and Fleming.  Fleming's RBI-single in the fourth then gave USF its biggest lead of the afternoon at 9-4.

Trinity Christian erased that lead in a big way with its six-run bottom half of the inning before adding four more runs in the eighth.

The Saints appeared to be on their way to their eleventh win of the season at that point, only to have TCC connect for eight hits and score six runs over the final three innings of play.  A USF error in the final inning set the stage for the walk-off comeback, resulting in the Trolls solidifying the victory in their favor with a final score of 10-9.

Up Next
USF takes on Saint Xavier University in a Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader on Friday, March 27 at 1 pm at Slammers Stadium

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