The Aquinas baseball team earned an odd, but impressive sweep of crosstown rival Cornerstone on Saturday (May 1) at CU, winning each end of the twinbill in drastically different ways. Aquinas used another terrific pitching performance from lefty Travis Keys to take game one by a 4-2 score and the Saints tallied nine runs in the final three innings – including a game-tying grand slam from Braden Nawrocki – to complete the sweep with an 11-10 victory.
 
With the wins, Aquinas inches back near .500 with a 23-24 overall record and a 6-12 conference record, while Cornerstone drops to 18-15 overall and 13-9 in league action. It was the first doubleheader sweep for the Saints since Mar. 21, when AQ earned a pair of wins over Siena Heights in non-conference play.
 
The opener featured another outstanding effort from Keys (5-2), who recorded 12 strikeouts for his fourth game of double-digit strikeouts this season. It was his third consecutive start with at least 10 K's, as he fanned 16 batters against both Lawrence Tech on Apr. 13 and against UM-Dearborn on Apr. 25. 
 
Keys' 101 strikeouts this year are the second-most in a single season in AQ history, behind only Paul Assenmacher's 123 punchouts in 1981. He tossed a complete game on Saturday with six hits, two runs, and zero walks for his second complete game victory in the last four starts.
 
The Saints provided Keys with early run support on a solo home run from Nathan Wilcox in the first inning. AQ went ahead 3-0 on an RBI groundout from Ryan Gillings and a run-scoring single from Mark Binkowski in the fourth inning. Binkowski made it 4-1 in the seventh with a sacrifice bunt that scored Michael Maher for the three-run lead.
 
Cornerstone managed a ninth inning run on a sacrifice fly, but Keys retired the final batter to seal the victory. Keys struck out the side in the sixth inning and two more in the second, fifth, and seventh, which included five consecutive K's in the sixth and seventh innings. 
 
AQ outhit Cornerstone by an 8-6 margin in the opener, as both Wilcox and Alec Lockwood went 2-for-4 in the win. Wilcox scored a pair of runs, while Binkowski collected two ribbies. Maher and Nawrocki both doubled in game one, while Wilcox hit the home run, his first as a Saint.
 
It was a 2-2 game in the nightcap on a Kelvin Aracena RBI single and a sacrifice fly from Lockwood, but Cornerstone opened a 6-2 lead in the fourth inning. An RBI double from Maher in the seventh made it 6-3, Wilcox drove in a run with an eighth inning single to make it 8-4, and two more runs scored on a CU error later the same inning for an 8-6 game. 
 
Cornerstone responded with a two-run home run in the home half of the eighth for a 10-6 Golden Eagles advantage. In the top of the ninth, the Saints started with an Aracena walk, a Brady Paganelli single, and a hit by pitch from Dane Smitz. Nawrocki – who entered the game one inning earlier as a pinch hitter – drilled a game-tying grand slam to right field to notch the game at 10-10. The blast was Nawrocki's second roundtrippper of the season.
 
After the game-tying grand slam, Wilcox followed with a double down the line for his fourth hit of the game. He would score three batters later on a fielder's choice to put AQ on top, 11-10. The Saints scored a run in the seventh, three more in the eighth, and five in the ninth. Aquinas worked around a one-out single in the ninth to preserve the win and the doubleheader sweep.
 
Wilcox finished 4-for-6 with three runs and two doubles, capping a 6-for-10 effort on the day. He's the third Saint this season (joining Lockwood and Wing) to record four hits in a game and also the third AQ hitter (joining Wing and Nathan Hughes) with six hits in a doubleheader. Nawrocki went 2-for-2 with the grand slam, two runs scored, and four ribbies. Maher was 2-for-3 with a double and three walks, Paganelli went 2-for-4 with two runs, and Aracena collected two hits in three at-bats. Smitz also scored twice in the game two win.
 
Six AQ pitchers appeared in the victory. Nathan Myers, Hunter Morrison, and Bruce Buurstra each tossed scoreless innings of relief with a strikeout apiece and Richard Steffan (4-2) earned the win by giving up two runs in two innings, while striking out four Golden Eagles.
 
The Saints head to Rochester Hills on Sunday (May 2) to take on Rochester in a WHAC doubleheader. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.