River Forest, Ill. -- The Cardiac Cougars showed up to play ball in their doubleheader against Marian University where they swept the Sabres and earned their ticket to the Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference Tournament. With two teams battling for a spot in the conference tournament, and a third watching closely as their destiny was decided for them, two intense games got underway at The Thunderdome. After battling a deficit in both games, strong pitching from Cole Carman (Littleton, Colo.), Vincent Sartori (Crest Hill, Ill.), and Mike Tobin (Hickory Hills, Ill.) as well as hot bats from Garry Maynard (Oswego, Ill.), Brody Mariotti (Yorktown, Ind.), and Colton Wallace (Hampshire, Ill.) pushed the Cougars forward.
GAME ONE
From the first at bat of the game, Marian proved they were ready to fight. An early error from the Cougars put the Sabres in scoring position. A SAC fly to left field gave them the early lead over the Cougars. With no success from the first three batters, the Cougars were quickly forced to defend yet again, with Christian Jacob (Scottsdale, Ariz.)Â fighting on the mound. After the hot Sabre bats sent two balls long, the Cougars fell further behind 6-0. Carman came in for relief in the second inning, where he closed out without giving up a hit.Â
The bottom of the second showed a glimpse of hope for the Cougars after they managed to grab four hits, but only managed to convert to one run. As the Sabres put two more runs on the board, the Cougars had their backs against the wall with a lot of game to fight back. In the bottom of the fourth, a single sent to center field from Matthew Uba (Darien, Ill.) jump started the Cougar offense. After a Caleb Anderson (Plainfield, Ill.) walk put two Cougars on base, Jaime Sandoval (Oak Lawn, Ill.) stepped up to the plate and sent a ball to the right field corner to score two runs on his triple. Aidan Donovan (Santee, Calif.) followed up with a double down the left field line to score Sandoval, cutting the Sabre lead to four.
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As Carman continued to put zeroes on the board for two consecutive innings, the Cougars were able to make the climb back. On his only hit of the game, Elijah Hickman (Rensselaer, Ind.) sent a ball to gap in centerfield that scored two runs, pulling the Cougars within one. With the score stagnant for two and a half innings, it all came down to the wire in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs and their future hanging in front of them, Wallace was sent to pinch hit where the junior sent a ball high and away to left center for a solo home run to tie the game and send things to extra innings.Â
The Sabres continued to swing the bats and put two runs up in the top of the 11th. The Cougars were yet again in a do or die situation as they needed to tie things up to stay alive. Maynard found himself on base after sending one up the middle as Mariotti approached the plate. Upholding the standards as the all-time career home run record holder, Mariotti sent a ball well over the centerfield wall to tie the game once again. Â
With Sartori coming in to close the game on the mound, he held the Sabres to zero hits and zero runs in the top of the 12th inning, creating the opportunity for a Cougar walkoff. With Donovan sitting on second base and Mariotti at the plate, the senior found the gap in left center to send Donovan home and win the game in the bottom of the 12th inning.Â
Sartori picked up the win in game one, while Carman threw 97 strikes on 117 pitches over 9.2 innings at work. The Cougars closed game one with 11 runs on 21 total hits and four errors.Â
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GAME TWO
As the win in game one eliminated the Sabres' opportunity to make it to the conference tournament, a win in game two for the Sabres would allow the Falcons of Concordia Wisconsin to advance as opposed to the Cougars. Starting on the mound for the Cougars, senior Zach Litke (Oak Lawn, Ill.) went to work and closed the first inning scoreless. With the Sabres continuing their strong at bats, they quickly jumped ahead 3-0 in the third inning. Sophomore Wyatt McLaughlin (Cave Creek, Ariz.) stepped in to relieve Litke where he worked a little over three innings while only allowing one run.Â
As the Cougars struggled to get the bats going in game two, a base hit from Hickman in the bottom of the fourth that scored Anderson would be the jump start to the offense. An inning later, the home run king of CUC sent a ball right over the left field wall and tied things up once again.Â
As the go-ahead run sat at third after Uba singled through the right side, Jacob's hit up the middle gave the Cougars the advantage. With the Sabres putting up two runs to take the lead again, the Cougars felt a familiar feeling as they had their backs against the wall with time running out. A rocket of a double sent to centerfield from Maynard would score two and give the Cougars the lead once again. Not satisfied with a one run lead, Mariotti stepped up to the plate and sent a ball across Division Street for his third home run of the day, and three runs added on to give them the 9-5 lead.
A simple three outs away from victory, Tobin took the mound where he closed the game for the Cougars in three batters. Sartori picked up the win in game two after picking up the win in the previous game. The Cougars closed game two with nine runs on 12 total hits with no errors.Â
With the win, the Cougars head to the NACC Tournament where they'll take on MSOE in Mequon, Wis. on Thursday, May 12th at 10:00am. Keep up with all things Cougar Baseball at cucougars.com as well as on Twitter and Instagram @cucbaseball.Â
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