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PDF Box Score LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Every Cougar in the lineup earned a hit on Friday (May 16) evening as Chicago State defeated New Mexico State 8-5 at Presley Askew Field to clinch the Western Athletic Conference baseball series.
"We've played a lot of good baseball the last two games," Chicago State head coach
Steve Joslyn said. "Games at the end of the year can go a lot of different ways but the guys stepped up to finish the year strong."
Following a scoreless first three innings for both teams, the Cougars scored in every inning from the fourth to the eighth.
Chicago State scored once in the fourth with an RBI double by freshman
Sanford Hunt (Chicago, Ill./Kenwood). In the fifth it was an RBI single to center to score junior
Jared Patterson (Ventura, Calif./Buena) off the bat of junior
Mattingly Romanin (Burlington, ONT/Notre Dame). New Mexico State briefly took the lead thanks to a three spot in the bottom of the fifth. The Cougars broke it open thanks to four runs in the sixth. Junior
Evan Davis (Sterling, Ill./Sterling) and sophomore
Julian Russell (Chicago, Ill./Gordon Tech) each knocked in a pair of runs in the inning. Senior
Nathan Poff (Sellersburg, Ind./New Albany) had a sacrifice fly in the seventh and junior
Jordan Stroschein (Marion, Iowa/Linn-Mar) singled in Romanin in the eighth to round out the Cougars' scoring.
Romanin totaled three hits, an RBI and a run scored. Russell finished with three hits and a walk in addition to his two RBI.
"Julian has had two great nights at the plate out here," Joslyn said. "He was great defensively tonight too after a tough one last night."
Junior
Ean McNeal (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Xavier) threw the final 4.2 innings to pick up the win and move his record to 4-5. He allowed three runs on seven hits. New Mexico State starter Zach Freeman took the loss to drop his record to 3-6 after allowing five runs in 5.0 innings.
The Cougars improve to 17-35 (5-18 WAC). New Mexico State falls to 19-29 (10-13 WAC). The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday. The first contest will be a nine-inning WAC game. The nightcap will be a seven-inning non-conference contest. The games will close out the 2014 campaign for Chicago State.
