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Box Score 2 PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – Chicago State baseball earned a pair of one-run victories on Thursday (Feb. 27) at the Snowbird Classic. The Cougars topped St. Bonaventure 5-4 in game one and reigning Summit League champion Nebraska-Omaha 2-1 in 11 innings in game two.
"I loved the character of our team today," Chicago State head coach
Steve Joslyn said. "It takes a lot to win two tight ball games over two quality teams. We never stopped fighting."
Chicago State 5, St. Bonaventure 4
The Cougars broke a 4-4 tie with a solo run in the bottom of the eighth inning to earn the win over the Bonnies. With an 0-2 count, freshman
Sanford Hunt (Chicago, Ill./Kenwood) started the bottom of the eighth with a triple. Junior
Jared Patterson (Ventura, Calif./Buena) followed with a sacrifice fly two batters later to score Hunt and put the Cougars up 5-4. Junior
Aveeno Nasiloski (Hammond, Ind./Gavit) threw a 1-2-3 ninth to pick up his first save of the season.
Junior
Nick Kostalek (Huntley, Ill./Huntley) earned his first NCAA Division I win. He didn't allow a run over three innings on two hits. Starter junior
Dane Mehring (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Xavier) threw 5.6 innings to pick up a no decision.
The Cougars opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the first inning. Juniors
Robert Swenson (Mason City, Iowa/Mason City) and
Jordan Stroschein (Marion, Iowa/Linn-Mar) each picked up an RBI single in the frame. The Bonnies tied it up at two before junior
Evan Davis (Sterling, Ill./Sterling) singled in a run in the fourth to make the score 3-2.
The Bonnies took a short-lived 4-3 lead in the top of the sixth, but the Cougars tied it at four in their half of the sixth. It stayed that way until Patterson's single in the eighth.
Sophomore
Julian Russell (Chicago, Ill./Gordon Tech) had a pair of hits and scored twice.
Chicago State 2, Omaha 1 (11 innings)
The second game of the day was just as tight as the first. Omaha was the first on the board with a single run in the fourth. Chicago State tied the score in the bottom of the seventh on an RBI single by birthday-boy junior
Mattingly Romanin (Burlington, ONT/Notre Dame) to score Russell.
Junior
Eric Hall (Oakville, ONT/Oakville Trafalgar) earned the start, going seven innings and allowing just the one run. He earned a no decision. Kostalek threw a scoreless eighth. Then senior
Jerry Silva (Chicago, Ill./Holy Trinity) entered the game. He didn't allow a hit in three innings. Silva picked up the win in his first decision of the season.
"Eric gave us exactly what we needed today," Joslyn said. "Really all of the pitchers were good today. We had some nice plays behind them defensively too."
Silva picked up the win thanks to the Cougars scratching one across in the 11
th. Hunt led the inning off with a single. Chicago State proceeded to load the bases for
Evan Davis (Sterling, Ill./Sterling). His dribbler up the first base line scored Hunt.
"Stanford was a fearless freshman today," Joslyn said. "He had the big triple in game one and in game two the catcher had the plate blocked pretty well but Stanford got around him to score the run."
The Cougars had a chance to win it in the ninth. Russell stood on second following a walk and a sacrifice. Romanin hit a ball deep in the hole at short and was thrown out. But with the ball in the dirt at first, Russell attempted to score on the play but was thrown out at the plate.
Chicago State improves to 3-5 with the wins. St. Bonaventure is 0-5. Omaha is now 1-4.
The Cougars play Omaha again on Friday at 2:30 p.m. ET.
