Concordia University Chicago baseball (9-14) split its second doubleheader of the weekend with rival Dominican University (7-17) at the Thunderdome on Sunday. The Cougar's bats were mashing in game one on the way to a 16-6 victory in eight innings. The team would then lose a back-and-forth battle in the second game by a final score of 9-7.

Game One
It was the most ideal of starts for the Cougars in the day's first game. After falling behind 1-0 in the top of the first, the offense responded with a massive eight-run inning in the bottom half.

Junior Howie Hatton (North Riverside, Ill.) got things started with a single up the middle on the very first pitch. Hatton was quick to put himself in scoring position, advancing to second on a passed ball before moving to third on a sac-fly. Sophomore Gary Maynard (Oswego, Ill.) brought him home with a single. The offense really got going from there, as senior Brody Mariotti (Yorktown, Ind.) launched his first of two home runs to put the Cougars up 3-1. 

The train kept rolling two batters later on an RBI double from junior Matthew Uba (Darien, Ill.), who then scored on a single from sophomore Caleb Anderson (Plainfield, Ill.). After batting around, Hatton came back up to the plate for the second time in the inning and ripped an RBI single to right. After a walk to junior Nathan Dewey (Geneva, Ill.), Maynard delivered his second RBI Hit of the inning with a two-run single to left. 

The Cougars added two more in the third, with one of the runs coming from junior Alex Kinert's (Cave Creek, Ariz.) first collegiate home run. Dominican broke through on offense in the fourth, however, putting up four runs to make it a 10-6 game. 

It was all CUC from that point on, as they scored runs in each of their final four at-bats to end the game in eight innings. RBI hits were delivered from Kinert and sophomore Carter Gledhill (Arlington Heights, Ill.), as well as another home run by Mariotti, his eighth of the season. 

It was Zach Litke (Oak Lawn, Ill.) who shut things down for the Cougars. The junior threw 4.1 innings allowing no runs on just one hit and striking out four. He issued just one free pass on a hit by pitch. 

Hatton led the way with three hits and was on base two additional times, he also swiped a pair of bags. Mariotti had six RBIs on the afternoon, while Maynard added three of his own. 

Game Two
The second game featured a much more back-and-forth battle, with the teams trading runs over the first two innings. The Cougars took the lead in the third and grabbed it back in the fifth before allowing four runs between the seventh and eighth innings. 

The Cougars hit three home runs in game two, all of the solo variety. This included the first career home run for sophomore Christian Jacob (Scottsdale, Ariz.) as well as Uba's second of the year and Zavoli's third. 

Jacob had a nice night at the plate, adding an RBI single in the fifth that gave CUC the lead at the time. Mariotti again led all Cougars with three runs driven in, two via RBI singles and another on a sac-fly. Maynard had another solid performance, leading the team with three hits and reaching base five times. 

The Cougars will be back in action on Tuesday when they welcome Concordia Wisconsin to the Thunderdome for a doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m. and a stream will be available on the CUC Athletics Youtube channel.