It was a beautiful day for baseball at the Thunderdome on Monday as the Cougars of Concordia University Chicago (6-7) won a pair of games over the Marian University Sabres (3-13) by final scores of 8-2 and 12-11.
Game One
The story of game one was Westin Stutzman (Goshen, Ind.) throwing his first career complete game. The sophomore went 9.0 innings, allowing nine hits and striking out eight. He had command of his pitches all day, allowing zero walks and facing just 35 batters.
The Cougars trailed for most of the game, entering the bottom of the sixth behind 2-0. That's when the offense that has been so reliable this year kicked it into gear. Junior Matthew Uba (Darien, Ill.) opened things up with a patient at-bat, drawing a walk to lead off the inning. Uba put himself in scoring position by stealing second base, and was then brought home by sophomore Caleb Anderson's (Plainfield, Ill.) RBI single.
One batter later, sophomore shortstop Bryce Vincent (Algonquin, Ill.) hit a line shot home run to left field that gave the Cougars the lead. They weren't done there, as junior Howie Hatton (North Riverside, Ill.) smoked a two-run triple to center to put CUC up 5-2. Hatton later scored on a sac-fly from sophomore Gary Maynard (Oswego, Ill.)
Extra insurance was added in the eighth with two more runs, highlighted by an RBI double from junior Kevin Garcia (Chicago, Ill.).
Hatton went 4-5 with two RBIs and two runs scored in the game one winner, finishing a home run shy of the cycle. Vincent was a solid 3-4 on the day, highlighted by his first career home run. The two combined for four of the team's eight RBIs.
Game Two
The second game was much more of a back-and-forth battle that came all the way down to the bottom of the ninth. Senior Brody Mariotti (Yorktown, Ind.) came to the plate representing the winning run and launched a massive walk-off two-run shot over the tallest part of the wall in right center field to give the Cougars the sweep.
The game had a wild ride to it's wild ending, with Marian kicking off the scoring with a two-run home run in the first. CUC quickly got one back on an RBI single from Garcia in the bottom half of the inning.
After Marian added another in the third, the Cougars again answered with a two-RBI triple from Maynard to even things up. Mariotti brought home Maynard with a groundout and gave his team their first lead of the game. Two more runs came across the plate the following inning after Garcia reached on an error that resulted in mayhem on the base paths.
Three more Cougars crossed the plate in the fifth thanks to a sac-fly from Vincent and RBI singles from Mariotti and Garcia. This gave the Cougars a 9-5 lead, which felt safe at the time. Five unanswered runs from the Sabers over the next four innings, however, gave Marian a two-run lead heading to the ninth.
Sophomore Colton Wallace (Hampshire, Ill.) had a massive pinch hit double to lead off the bottom of the ninth. He was relieved on the bases by sophomore Christian Jacob (Scottsdale, Ariz.), who then scored on a Gary Maynard single. The stage was set for Mariotti, who delivered his conference-leading sixth home run to send his team and the fans home happy.
Mariotti and Garcia both had four RBIs in the game two victory. Three more were added by Maynard, who was a perfect 3-3 in the game in addition to being hit by a pitch three times (four on the day). The sophomore is tops in the NCAA in that category. Vincent was again solid in game two, going 2-4 with an RBI and three runs scored.
The Cougars will be back in action on Wednesday when they head north for a doubleheader at Wisconsin Lutheran College. Game one is set to begin at 1 p.m. and coverage will be available on the WLC website.
