The Saint Xavier Cougar baseball team lost two of three to the Cardinal Stritch University Wolves in a weekend home-and- home series.
The Cougars are still under .500 at 17-23, though they have a solid record in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference (CCAC) at 12-8.
SXU dropped the Friday contest at Cardinal Stritch 1-0 in 12 innings. The Cougars took the first game of the doubleheader they played at home 9-3 on Saturday before losing the second game 5-4.
In the Friday contest, senior pitcher Scott Vachon threw nine scoreless innings, giving up just seven hits and two walks while striking out eight.
His opposing pitcher, Kevin Murphy, was even more spectacular. He went all twelve innings and gave up eight hits and two walks. He struck out five in the win.
First-year pitcher Adrian Luna took over for Vachon after the ninth inning. He went 2 2/3 innings.
In the bottom of the 12th inning, Luna gave up a single and a walk with one out. A wild pitch moved those runners into scoring position, then a walk loaded the bases.
After getting the second out, Luna gave up the walk-off single to third baseman (and guard on the basketball team) Chad Mazur.
In that game, senior right fielder Chris Klein was the only Cougar to accrue more than just one hit. He went 3-for-5 Friday afternoon.
First-year pitcher Jesse Lopez took the mound in the first game of the doubleheader and went all seven innings.
Lopez gave up three runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out two batters, but he pitched well enough to get the win.
His teammates gave him plenty enough to pick up the win, scoring nine runs on 12 hits.
Junior third baseman Bryan Villanova, who seems to have found a home hitting second in the order, led the offensive charge. He was 3-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI.
Klein, who has taken over as the everyday leadoff hitter, was 1-for-3 with two runs scored. Senior left fielder Brad Myjak and freshman right fielder Bryan Polak each drove in two runs.
Saint Xavier scored their first two runs of the game on wild pitches in the first inning. They scored another two runs in the third inning when Polak doubled home senior first baseman Thomas Keating and sophomore shortstop Alec Barnhart.
The Cougars really broke the game wide open with four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to put away the Wolves.
A couple of sacrifice flies in that inning scored the first two runs before Myjak put his stamp on the game, doubling home Keating and sophomore pinch runner Steve Carrabotta.
Saint Xavier put up a tough fight to try and win the weekend series in the final game of the set but fell just short in nine innings. Cardinal Stritch led 3-1 entering the bottom of the eighth inning, but that was when the Cougar bats came alive.
After a Keating RBI single scored Klein, two more runs scored on a fielding error and poor throw from the first basemen to put Saint Xavier in the lead by a slim 4-3 margin.
Luna took the hill in the bottom of the ninth only to give up a single and be immediately replaced by junior pitcher Dan Wetzel, who had two wild pitches score
Luna’s base runner and one of his own. The Cougars’ fate was sealed when they could muster no offense in the bottom of the ninth. Saint Xavier has a doubleheader today at Olivet Nazarene University with the first game scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m.
The next Cougar home game is tomorrow against Purdue University Calumet, which will be played at Ferrell Field but technically be counted as a home game for the Peregrines.
Tim Carroll
Senior Sports Editor
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