The Aquinas baseball team plated 29 runs in a doubleheader sweep on Sunday afternoon (May 2) at Rochester to extend its winning streak to four straight games. AQ topped the Warriors by an 8-3 score in the opener and overcame an early 8-2 deficit in game two to notch a 21-16 victory in the nightcap and complete the sweep.
With the Saints' second consecutive sweep – including winning a pair of games at Cornerstone on Saturday (May 1) – Aquinas moves to 25-24 on the season and 8-12 in conference play. Rochester dips to 6-24 overall and 4-14 in league action.
One of AQ's heroes against Cornerstone on Saturday was
Braden Nawrocki, as the freshman delivered a game-tying grand slam in the ninth inning of an eventual 11-10 nightcap victory. He continued his hot streak on Sunday; after going 2-for-4 with a double and RBI in game one, Nawrocki exploded in game two and finished 3-for-5 with two doubles, a home run, three runs scored, and seven RBI.
Tallying a three-run homer in the fifth, an RBI double in the seventh, and a three-run double in the eighth inning of game two, Nawrocki tied the Aquinas single-game record with his seven RBI. That has happened only two other times in program history:
Chris Laska tallied seven ribbies on Apr. 10, 1999 at Spring Arbor and Brenden Johnson matched the performance with seven RBI on Apr. 18, 2017 at Hope.
In game one on Saturday, the Saints jumped out to a 4-0 lead by the fifth inning on a pair of RBI groundouts from
Brady Paganelli and
Michael Maher, a Nawrocki RBI double, and
Nathan Wilcox scored on a wild pitch. Rochester chipped away at the deficit and made it a 5-3 game after the sixth inning.
The Saints plated a pair of runs in the seventh on a
Ryan Gillings RBI single and a double steal with Gillings getting to second and Maher stealing home. Those runs were more than enough after strong pitching from
Mason Hill and
Grant Smitz in the 8-3 win.
Hill (3-3) earned the victory by allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits in 5.2 innings. He walked three and struck out five. Smitz was also lights out in relief, giving up only one hit and no runs in 3.1 innings, walking one and notching six strikeouts.
Nawrocki was the lone Saint with multiple hits the opener with his 2-for-4 effort. Wilcox and Maher both scored twice.
Game two was wild, with Rochester leading 8-2 after two innings and 10-5 after three frames. Wilcox and
Sean Wing each drove in runs in the fifth – on an error and a sacrifice fly, respectively – to bring up Nawrocki. He smashed his third homer of the season – a three-run shot – to put the Saints on top, 11-10 midway through the fifth.
Rochester regained the lead in the sixth inning 12-11, but Nawrocki tied the score during his next at-bat with an RBI double in the seventh. He came up again in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and delivered a bases-clearing double to put AQ in front by a 15-12 advantage. Gillings drove in Nawrocki with a run-scoring single for a 16-12 edge.
The Saints added to their lead with RBI triples from
Colton VanderLeest and
Noah Haran and an RBI double from
Alec Lockwood to reach the 20-run mark and scored the 21st run on a wild pitch. It is AQ's second 20-run game of the season, notching a 20-2 victory at Saint Xavier on Apr. 2. The 21 runs are the most scored by the Saints since a 24-7 win over Calvin on Apr. 11, 2006.
In the doubleheader, Nawrocki finished 5-for-9 with four runs and eight RBI, including three doubles and a homer. VanderLeest went 2-for-4 with three walks, a pair of RBI, and three runs scored. Gillings totaled two hits and three ribbies, Paganelli walked twice and scored twice, and
Lucas Weinert was 2-for-4 with two runs.
VanderLeest, Wilcox, Haran, and
Max Vicari all tripled during the win. Vicari, Wilcox, and Wing all scored twice, as well.
Six Saints pitchers threw in game two, with
Nathan Myers being credited with the win after tossing 1.2 innings of hitless relief.
Richard Steffan struck out all three batters he faced in the eighth inning.
With the consecutive doubleheader sweeps, AQ closes 2021 with a 25-24 record and finishes above .500 to close the season for the first time since 2013. The 25 victories are also the most by the Saints since the 2010 season.
