March 2, 2015 - On day two of the 2015 spring trip to Florida, the Concordia-Chicago baseball team appeared to have victory number two in hand as they overcame an early deficit. But this time, the late heroics belonged to Wartburg College. The Knights from Waverly, Iowa scored six runs over their final two at-bats to defeat the Cougars by a final score of 10-7 at the Chain of Lakes Complex in Winter Haven.
The Cougars drew first blood as
Steve Zubrzycki (McHenry, IL/Marian Central Catholic) drew a leadoff walk on a 3-2 pitch. Zubrzycki stole second base with one out, but he was not there for long.
Carlos Olavarria (Rosemont, IL/East Leyden) jumped on the next pitch and lined it deep to leftfield. The ball cleared the fence for CUC's first homer of the season and a quick 2-0 lead.
Freshman
Alex Meyers (Edwardsville, IL/H.S.) took the mound for the Cougars in the bottom of the first but was greeted rudely by the Knights. Meyers retired the leadoff batter but then gave up an infield hit and a single up the middle. A fly to right accounted for the second out, but the next four batters all came up with base hits to score four runs and put Wartburg up 4-2.
"I thought Alex did a pretty good job," said CUC head coach
Adam Smith. "There was a little bit of bad luck involved with a couple of balls not hit hard but in the right place for them. But I give him credit, he got out of the first and then pitched very well into the seventh."
The Cougars came back to even the score in the third. With one out, Zubrzycki singled and went to second moments later on an errant pickoff throw,
Joe Silva (Oswego, IL/H.S.) followed with a single through the right side, and Zubrzycki raced around to make it a one-run game. Concordia-Chicago kept the pressure on Wartburg starter Michael Knouse as Silva stole second and Olavarria walked. Next up was
Thomas Gier (Fox Lake, IL/Grant Community), and his ground ball was fielded by the first baseman. However, the throw to second sailed high into leftfield as Silva came around third to score the tying run.
Momentum continued on CUC's side as they came to bat in the fourth.
Colin Bethran (Schaumburg, IL/H.S.) was hit by a pitch with one out, and an error on the second baseman allowed
Rich Santarelli (Homer Glen, IL/Chicago Christian) to reach base. A wild pitch moved both runners up 90 feet, and
Will Randerson's (Combined Locks, WI/Kimberly) line shot just over the pitcher's head resulted in a go-ahead RBI single. Zubrzycki then executed a perfect bunt as Santarelli scored and Randerson advanced to second. Silva then capped the three-run uprising with a single to right for his second hit and second RBI of the day.
Meyers was at his best from the third through the sixth innings, allowing just two baserunners with one of them being erased in a 5-4-3 double play to end the fourth. But the Cougars were unable to add to their lead as Wartburg reliever Taylor Gilson retired nine of the 10 batters he faced from the fifth through the seventh.
The Knights started the seventh with three straight hits, two of them staying in the infield. Coach Smith went to the bullpen for freshman
Brian Musielak (Chicago, IL/Brother Rice), but Wartburg's three and four hitters came up with a double and single to tie the game at 7-7. Musielak notched a key strikeout for the first out, but an infield error allowed the go-ahead run to score moments later and put the Knights in the lead at 8-7. In the eighth, Wartburg tacked on two insurance runs to put the Cougars in a three-run hole as they came up for their final shot in the ninth.
The Cougars gave it a shot as they had both Santaerlli and Zubrzycki reaech base on walks. However, a line-drive double play erased one of the walks, and WC's Gavin Nadermann retired Silva on a 1-3 grounder for the final out.
Concordia-Chicago (1-1) returns to action on Tuesday with a doubleheader consisting of two seven-inning games. Their opponent will be Gwynedd Mercy University of Pennsylvania, and game one will begin at 11:30 a.m. (EST) at the Lake Myrtle Sports Park in Auburndale.
