The Aquinas baseball team started out the 2022 season 2-2 with a four-game series split against Grace College on Friday (Feb. 11) and Saturday (Feb. 12). Playing at a neutral site in Hoover, Alabama, the Saints completed a 9-6 comeback win the first day and followed that up with a dominate 13-3 victory to close out day one. The second day the Lancers got their revenge by taking game three 17-0 and then closing out the series with a close 8-6 victory over AQ.
GAME 1 - Aquinas 9, Grace College 6 (7 innings)
It was the Lancers who raced out to a 5-0 lead after two innings as the Saints found themselves in an early whole.
Conor Gausselin opened the season on the mound for Aquinas, going three innings and giving up five runs on six hits with three walks, while striking out two.
His teammates had his back though by coming to the plate and scoring nine unanswered runs in the fourth and fifth innings.
Alex Strickland came around to score on an error by the Lancers in the fourth and then
Jake Paganelli hit a sacrifice fly to score
Dane Smitz to make the score 5-2.
In the fifth, the Saints got a couple of extra base hits by
Nathan Hughes and Paganelli. Hughes doubled to right field to score
JD Gillies and
Braden Nawrocki before Paganelli also double to right field to clear the bases and plate
Sean Wing,
Nathan Wilcox, and Smitz. Paganelli and
Owen Graves would also come around to score on GC errors to make the score 9-5.
Garrett Cheslek came in and settled things down on the mound by going three strong innings and only giving up one run in the sixth. He eventually got the win after striking out three and allowing four hits.
Nathan Myers came in and shut the door to earn the save after getting three flyouts in the seventh.
Smitz led the way offensively by going 4-4 with two runs scored.
GAME 2 - Aquinas 13, Grace College 3 (8 innings)
It was the Saints who grabbed an early 3-0 lead before the Lancers could hit in game two as Wilcox drove in
Braden Brown on a sacrifice fly and Smitz doubled to right field with Nawrocki and
Grant Martin coming around to score.
Grace College would answer in innings three and four to knot the game up at three.
Zach Marshall started the game on the hill fot the Saints, going four innings and allowing three runs on six hits plus a walk, while striking out three.
Aquinas broke the game open by scoring 10 runs in innings six, seven and eight to take the 13-3 win. Paganelli continued his hot day by tripling to right field, plating Hughes, Martin, and Smitz in the sixth.
Ryan Gillings then brought Paganelli in to score on a successful safety squeeze bunt attempt.
With the bases loaded in the seventh, Smitz walked in Hughes for the eighth run before
Kelvin Aracena singled to right field to score Wilcox and Martin. Hughes rounded out the scoring in the eighth with a three-run blast to left field with
Mark Binkowski and Brown scoring.
Hunter Morrison came into relieve Marshall in the fifth and ended up with the win after going four shutout innings with four strikeouts and only allowing two hits.
Hughes had a 3-5 game at the plate with a double, a home run, three RBI, and three runs scored. Brown also had a multi-hit game by going 2-5 with two runs scored.
GAME 3 - Grace College 17, Aquinas 0 (7 innings)
The third game in the series was a forgettable one for AQ as the Lancers scored runs in five out of the seven innings. Gillies was the only Saint to pick up multiple hits by going 2-3. Wilcox and
Lorenzo Cupri also had hits for AQ.
Aquinas sent four pitchers to the mound in seven innings with
Mason Hill getting the start and ultimately taking the loss. Hill pitched four innings and allowed three runs on four hits, while striking out seven.
Tyler Zomerlei came in and the beginning of the fifth and made it one and a third innings. Zomerlei allowed eight runs on seven hits and a walk, while striking out one.
Caden Gregory finished out the sixth inning, allowing one run on two hits.
Nathan Esch pitched the final inning and gave up five runs on three hits and two walks.
GAME 4 - Grace College 8, Aquinas 6 (9 innings)
The Saints bounced back and had a better final game of the series, holding a 4-0 lead after three innings. Smitz tripled in the first inning to score Brown and Hughes. Chris Suriel Garcia then doubled to left field to bring around Hughes and Nawrocki in the third.
Kyle Teachworth made the start for AQ in game four and went four strong innings in his collegiate debut. He allowed two runs on five hits and a walk, while striking out one.
With the game now standing at 4-2 in the fifth, Gillies smashed his first home run of the season over the right field wall to give the Saints a three-run lead.
Owen Graves was the first man out of the pen for Aquinas and was able to go two and a third innings. The Lancers were able to get two runs off of Graves in the seventh inning to cut the AQ lead to 5-4.
The Saints quickly responded with a run in the bottom of the inning as Smitz doubled to left field to bring in Wing.
However, Grace College was able to score the last three runs of the game to complete the 8-6 comeback win. Myers took the loss after going two and a third innings, giving up four runs (three earned) on four hits and three walks.
Grant Martin pitched the final out for AQ.
Smitz had another good game, going 2-4 with three RBI, while Hughes also had a multi-hit game after going 2-3 and scoring two runs.
Aquinas will head down to Marshall, Missouri on Saturday-Sunday (Feb. 19-20) and play at Indian Foothills Park. The Saints will play a neutral site game against Dakota State at 2:30 on Saturday before starting a three-game road series against Missouri Valley at 5:00 PM. The final two games of the series will be played on Sunday at 12:00 and 3:00 PM.
