Memphis, Tenn. — The Concordia University Chicago baseball team wrapped up their weekend trip to Tennessee on Sunday with a battle against Piedmont University. Though the Cougars held a couple leads in the game early on, they ultimately fell 15-5 in seven innings. 

Inside the Box Score

• Senior Howie Hatton (North Riverside, Ill.) reached base three times, including a leadoff home run. He also had a pair of runs scored. 

• Fellow senior Kevin Garcia (Chicago, Ill.) and junior Caleb Anderson (Plainfield, Ill.) each had two hits for the Cougars.

• Junior Garry Maynard (Oswego, Ill.) led the team with two RBIs. 

• The Cougars swiped six bases on the day, led by senior Nathan Dewey (Geneva, Ill.)  who had two.

• Sophomore Vincent Sartori (Crest Hill, Ill.) had another strong outing, allowing no earned runs over 2.0 innings of work. 

The game started with a bang as Hatton left the yard to lead things off and give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. They added a second run thanks to the speed of Dewey, who stole a pair of bases following a walk and later scored on a single by Garcia. 

Senior Zach Litke (Oak Lawn, Ill.) then went to work on the mound, erasing a leadoff hit with a double play and then getting a flyout to keep the Lions off the board in the first. 

After the Cougars threatened to add to their lead in the second but came up short, the Lions proceeded to put three on the board in the bottom half of the inning to take the lead. A leadoff walk came around to score one batter later on a triple down the first base line. That runner would score on a double to deep center, and the go ahead run came courtesy of a rundown play on a caught stealing between first and second. 

CUC once again threatened in the third after back-to-back one out singles from senior Brody Mariotti (Yorktown, Ind.) and Garcia. They moved to second and third thanks to a solid two-strike approach from senior Michael Zavoli (Santa Clara, Utah), but were left stranded. 

The Cougars were finally able to push a couple more runs across in the fourth, starting with a leadoff single from Anderson. He moved to third following a balk and a groundout before a walk and steal from Hatton put two runners in scoring position. With two outs, Maynard delivered a clutch hit through the right side to put the Cougars ahead 4-3. 

The lead didn't last long however, as a leadoff homer from the Lions in the fourth evened things right back up. This was the beginning of a four-run inning for Piedmont, who'd take the lead for good at 7-4. 

A one-out single from Zavoli in the fifth set up an RBI hit for Anderson, pulling the Cougars back within two. Piedmont answered with two more runs of their own in the bottom half, however, to take their largest lead of the afternoon to that point at four. 

Sartori kept the Lions off the board in the sixth, building off his effective outing from Friday. After failing to chip away at the lead in the top of the seventh, the Cougars surrendered six in the bottom half, ending the game at 15-5. 

The team will be back at it next weekend in Westfield, Ind., for the Grand Park Tournament. They'll play a doubleheader on Saturday, beginning with Heidelberg University at 11:00 a.m. EDT, and a matchup with Anderson University following at approximately 2 p.m. EDT. Coverage for the weekend's action will be available on cucougars.com/coverage.