WHEATON, Ill. -- After falling behind early to a 5-0 deficit, the Concordia-Chicago baseball team had an electric, eight-run seventh inning to prevail to a 10-5 victory over Wheaton College this evening.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
- Cade Laudenschlager earned his third victory of the season tonight, striking out five batters and allowing just one run in 5.2 innings of work.
- Freshman Zach Litke was clutch for the Cougars down the stretch, as the freshman saw two innings of relief pitching, striking out five Wheaton players.
- Keegan Tyrell scored today's game-winning hit, as he launched an RBI double, to plate the go-ahead runs in the seventh inning.
The Thunder struck early, putting up a quick two spot from a walked batter and a home run in the first inning. Wheaton continued to lay its foot on the pedal as they tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the second, forcing Laudenschlager to enter the game for relief. The sophomore quickly showed that he was ready to work, as he managed to induce a ground ball double play and get the Cougars out of the inning.
CUC seemed to be ready for some offense in the top of the third, as
Matt Fauth got a rally going with a single up the middle.
Jose Mercado caught wind of the streak and hit a liner through the right side himself, but both he and Fauth would end up stranded on the base paths, with the Cougars unable to bring the runners in.
Wheaton was able to tack on one last run for the remainder of the game in the bottom half of the inning, just before Concordia-Chicago began its march back to victory.
In the fifth, the Cougar offense showed some life. Once again, Fauth and Mercado reached safely in back-to-back at bats, while rookie
Brayden Benavides followed up with the RBI single to left field. Benavides' single cut CUC's deficit to four, as Laudenschlager kept the Cougars in the game shutting down Wheaton's lineup for the next two innings.
The flood gates opened in the top of the seventh as the Cougars forced Wheaton to make a pitching change on three separate occasions throughout the frame. The inning got going when
Matthew Uba drew a walk and Fauth followed up with a single to place runners on first and second. From there, Mercado and Benavides also drew walks allowing Uba to claim CUC's second run of the day.
With the bases loaded and no outs,
Bryan VanDuser sent a missile into orbit that scored two more runs for the Cougars and brought the game to just 5-4. Later on in the inning, Tyrell had a two-RBI double to the left center power alley that allowed CUC to take over the lead of the game for the first time.
Up 6-5, Concordia-Chicago tacked on three more runs before the inning would end thanks to clutch at-bats from Uba, Fauth and Mercado.
As the Cougars hung onto their 9-5 lead into the bottom of the eight, Litke entered the game in relief for Laudenschlager. The freshmen threw gas from the hill and recorded two quick strikeouts and a pop out to push CUC into the final inning of play.
Howie Hatton was not ready for the night to end, as the freshman got a pinch-hit single in the top of the ninth and later scored on a long sacrifice fly from his classmate, Uba.
With a comfortable 10-5 lead, Litke closed out the game with three more strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth to secure CUC's electrifying victory.
The Cougars will return to action tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. for their home opener against North Park University.
