The Aquinas baseball team received great pitching on Sunday afternoon (Mar. 21) in a non-league doubleheader in Adrian against Siena Heights. Four AQ pitchers combined to allow just four runs on 12 hits in the sweep, as the visiting Saints won by scores of 5-1 and 4-3.
With the two wins, AQ improves to 12-8 on the season, while Siena Heights drops to 3-11. The teams will meet again on Apr. 3 in Rockford in a WHAC doubleheader.
Aquinas got off to a solid start on Sunday, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning of game one.
Alec Lockwood delivered a two-run single to bring home
Nathan Hughes and
Sean Wing and would later score on a bases-loaded walk to
Alex Strickland.
Ben Snider made that early 3-0 lead stand up, allowing just a fourth inning sacrifice fly before exiting after five innings of two-hit ball. He gave up one run and two walks, while striking out five. Before Snider departed, Lockwood made it a 5-1 advantage with a two-run homer, his second straight day with a long ball.
Grant Smitz relieved Snider and tossed two scoreless innings of relief, allowing two hits and striking out three batters. Snider moves to 2-1 on the season, while Smitz picked up the save.
Lockwood finished 2-for-4 with the homer, two runs, and four RBI.
Michael Maher and
Braden Nawrocki each went 2-for-3, while Hughes doubled and Wing walked twice.
Game two was a mirror image, as Aquinas again scored three runs in the top of the first inning. Nawrocki delivered a two-run double to score Hughes and
Dane Smitz, then crossed home plate himself on a
Brady Paganelli run-scoring single.
It was 3-1 in the seventh inning when
Joseph Kelley smashed a solo homer for the 4-1 advantage. It was the first roundtripper of his career. The home run was even more important, as Siena Heights used a late push to score two runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 4-3 game.
Grant Smitz struck out the final batter of the game to preserve the win and earn his second save of the day.
Hunter Morrison collected the win by scattering six hits over five innings. He allowed one run and struck out five batters to move to 1-1 on the year. No Aquinas batter had more than one hit or run scored, though Nawrocki's early two-run double was a huge early hit for the visiting Saints.
AQ heads to Marion, Ind. for a pair of games against separate Indiana schools on Tuesday (Mar. 23). The Saints will take on Indiana Wesleyan at 2:30 p.m. on their home field before a 5:30 p.m. game against Marian, also to be played at IWU.
