The AQ baseball team traveled to Ann Arbor, Michigan this afternoon (Apr. 29) to play a doubleheader against the UM-Dearborn Wolverines. Aquinas went down 3-0 in the first inning and failed to make a comeback in the first game, losing 3-2. In the second game, the Saints would survive an eight-run fourth inning from the Wolverines and make a comeback to win 10-9. Aquinas is now 18-31 on the season while UMD is 7-26.
Game 1: UM-Dearborn 3, Aquinas 2 (7 Innings)
Mason Hill started the first game for the Saints and would pitch a solid six innings after giving up three runs in the first inning. Hill faced 21 batters, striking out three while forcing four flyouts and eight groundouts. Hill would allow two hits and allow a runner on due to a hit by pitch. An error from Aquinas along with a pair of fielder's choice plays would give the Wolverines an early 3-0 lead.
The Saints would quickly respond with a double from
Mark Binkowski to start the top of the second inning. A couple of batters later,
JD Gillies would hit Binkowski home with an RBI single.
Aquinas would leave a couple of runners on base in the fourth inning and then proceed to narrow the UMD lead down to just one run after a solo home run from
Braden Brown, his third of the season.
AQ would pick up a couple more hits but would fail to bring any of the runners home. The game would end in the seventh inning with a 3-2 victory for UM-Dearborn.
Hill would move to 0-7 on the season despite a solid outing from the sophomore pitcher.
Jake Paganelli would go one-for-two with a hit and a walk on the game. Gillies and Brown would generate the two RBIs for the Saints.
Game 2: Aquinas 10, UM-Dearborn 9
Garrett Cheslek got the start on the bump for the Saints to start the second game of the doubleheader. He had a solid start to the game, striking out a pair of batters and forcing six groundouts.
The first inning was quiet, but AQ would strike first in the top of the second inning.
Chris Suriel Garcia would get on base due to being hit by a pitch. He would then advance to second base due to a wild pitch.
Ryan Gillings would reach first due to an error by the third baseman and
Sean Wing would advance the two runners with a single, loading the bases with no outs.
Grant Martin would score Garcia with a sacrifice fly. However, that would be the only run that the Saints would score that inning due to a double play on the next at bat.
AQ would load the bases again in the third inning. This time they would score two runs as Brown would score on a passed ball. Garcia would then proceed to hit a knock into the outfield and score Binkowski to make the score 3-0.
The Saints would double their score in the top of the fourth inning and appear to be running away with the game. Binkowski would generate an RBI with a single, scoring Martin.
Dane Smitz would score on the next play due to an error from the Wolverines second baseman. Two batters later, Garcia would get hit by a pitch, again, with the bases loaded. This would advance
Owen Graves from third base.
Disaster would strike for the Saints in the bottom of the fourth inning. Cheslek would allow five earned runs after three hits and two walks.
Kyle Teachworth would come in relief and a couple of hits and a pair of walks would cause the Saints to go to the bullpen again.
Hunter Morrison would enter the game and stop the bleeding, but not before UMD scored eight runs in the bottom half of the fourth frame.
Wing would respond by getting on base to start the fifth inning. Smitz would then tie up the game would a two-run bomb, giving the Saints some much-needed momentum. Morrison would give the AQ defense a one-two-three inning and it was a new game entering the sixth inning.
Brown would hit in two more runs in the top of the sixth inning to give Aquinas a 10-8 advantage. The Wolverines would quickly respond the AQ offense with a sacrifice fly to narrow the lead to just one run.
However, the offense explosion would end and neither side would allow any more runs. Morrison continued to pitch well and would close out the game. Morrison would improve to 5-2 on the season.
Smitz would go 2-4 on the day with a pair of RBIs and a homer. Brown would bat a perfect 3-3 with a double and a pair of RBIs himself. Garcia would also generate two runs with a pair of hits.
The Saints end their regular season tomorrow (Apr. 30) with WHAC action against Cornerstone University. The doubleheader is set to begin at 1:00 PM at the Meijer Sports Complex in Rockford, Michigan.
