CHICAGO (March 18, 2010) – Senior Austin McDowell (Coal City, IL/Olney Central College) (Coal City, Ill.) threw a complete game in his first collegiate pitching start Wednesday afternoon, but the Chicago State baseball team fell to Southern Utah, 12-5, at the Palm Beach Challenge in Palm Beach, Fla. The Thunderbirds improved their record to 3-10 on the year while the Cougars dropped to 0-6.
Redshirt freshman Brock Westphal began the scoring in the first inning when he lined a two-run single off McDowell up the middle to give SUU an early 2-0 lead. The Thunderbirds added another run in the second inning when senior Matt Sanford drew an RBI walk that scored sophomore Mitchell Kauweloa to increase their lead to 3-0.
After SUU hiked its leading margin to 4-0 in the top of the third thanks to an RBI single by freshman Joe Goldenberg, the Cougars pulled within 4-2 in the bottom half of the third when junior Michael Carpen (Whiting, IN/Clark) (Whiting, Ind.) and redshirt sophomore Albert Carpen (Whiting, IN/Clark) (Whiting, Ind.) recorded back-to-back run scoring singles that plated senior Kevin Hussey (Pickering, ON/Olney Central College) (Pickering, Ont.) and freshman Christian Prince (Hudsonville, MI/Hudsonville) (Husdonville, Mich.). Hussey opened the stanza with a walk and Prince was hit by a pitch on the next play before scoring.
The Thunderbirds received an RBI single from sophomore Marcus Romero that went down the right field line to score Goldenberg, who reached base on a throwing error, from third to increase their leading margin to 5-2.
Goldenberg struck again in the seventh as he drove home a pair of runs with a double to right field as SUU posted a 7-2 lead and Kauweloa closed the scoring in the eighth with a two-RBI home run to left field.
Michael and Albert Carpen (Whiting, IN/Clark) each went 1-of-4 at the plate with an RBI while Hussey and junior Miguel Camacho (Chicago, IL/Oakton CC) (Chicago, Ill.) also recorded hits for CSU. McDowell (0-1) was saddled with the loss after allowing nine runs (eight earned) on 15 hits while posting three strikeouts on the day.
Southern Utah was led by Goldenberg's 3-of-5 offensive effort with three RBI. Kauweloa also went 3-of-5 with two RBI and scored twice. Freshman Cody Eliason (1-3) earned the win by striking out five batters in addition to giving up two runs on four hits in six and two-thirds innings of work.
The Cougars are idle today, but will resume their Palm Beach Challenge series with Southern Utah tomorrow evening at 6 p.m.
~CSU~
