CHICAGO – Chicago State baseball broke a 22-game losing streak on Wednesday evening as it captured a 13-10 road victory over host North Park at NPU's Holmgren Complex on the city's northwest side. The Cougars improved to 2-29 on the year, while the Vikings fell to 20-10.
CSU opened the scoring in the top of the first when senior Kellon McFarlin (Chicago, IL/Meramec CC) (Chicago, Ill.) led off the game with a walk, stole two bases and scored on a wild pitch for a 1-0 lead. North Park took advantage of three Cougar errors in the bottom of the first to score five runs with RBI doubles from senior Nick Marino and junior Angel Carrasco to capture a 5-1 lead.
The visitors responded with five runs in the fourth that included a two-RBI double from junior Billy Les (Oak Lawn, IL/South Suburban College) (Oak Lawn, Ill.) and an RBI single by senior Patrick Hernandez (Romeoville, IL/Triton CC) (Romeoville, Ill.) to claim a 6-5 lead.
Freshman Christian Prince (Hudsonville, MI/Hudsonville) (Hudsonville, Mich.) blasted a three-run home run to center field off Viking reliever Travis Boyer to center field which also scored McFarlin and redshirt sophomore Albert Carpen (Whiting, IN/Clark) (Whiting, Ind.) to increase the Cougars' leading margin to 9-5. The Vikings sliced their deficit to 9-6 in the bottom of the fifth when junior Zach Deutcher reached base on a CSU fielding error and later scored on a second error in the inning.
The Cougars added two more runs in the top of the sixth after Hernandez connected on a two-RBI double to right field that scored junior Michael Carpen (Whiting, IN/Clark) (Whiting, Ind.) and McFarlin to hike the lead to 11-6, but an RBI sacrifice fly by junior Mike Domenick in the bottom half of the sixth plated junior Trevor Popp as North Park closed within 11-7.
After CSU increased its lead to 13-7 after scoring a pair of runs in the eighth inning, the Vikings scored three runs in the ninth inning on three RBI walks before sophomore Jonathan Carpen (Whiting, IN/Clark) (Whiting, Ind.) got the final two batters to fly out to end the game.
Hernandez finished the game hitting 3-of-6 and drove home three runs, while senior Austin McDowell (Coal City, IL/Olney Central College) (Coal City, Ill.) also went 3-of-6 at the plate. Prince hit 2-of-4 with four RBI, and McFarlin hit 2-of-4 with four runs scored and a career-high four stolen bases. Freshman Luc Faron (St. Peters, MO/Francis Howell) (St. Peters, Mo.) improved his record to 2-3 despite allowing seven runs (three earned) on six hits in six innings thrown, while sophomore James Tucker (Gary, IN/Calumet) (Gary, Ind.) threw two scoreless innings of relief.
Junior Wade Yunker led North Park's offensive output by going 2-of-3 at the plate and scored once. Marino drove home three runs and Deutscher added two RBI with two runs scored. Freshman Carnell Blackmon (0-1) recorded nine strikeouts and nine walks, but allowed six runs (two earned) on two hits in three and two-thirds innings of work to take the loss.
The Cougars return to Great West Conference play this Friday as they begin a four-game weekend series against conference-leading Utah Valley at Olive-Harvey College with a start time of 3 p.m.
~CSU~
