Caledonia, Mich. – The Saints played their first home games of the season yesterday (Mar. 16) while kicking off the conference season. Aquinas battled against the 2023 WHAC champions, Madonna over at the Davenport University Farmer's Insurance Athletic Complex. AQ won the first game but dropped the second despite a late rally attempt.
Aquinas remains just under .500 with a 9-11 overall record and a 1-1 conference record.
Game 1: Aquinas 3, Madonna 2 (7 Innings)
The Crusaders had the bats going early against AQ's ace,
Conor Gausselin. A pair of walks and a couple of singles had Madonna up 2-0 with just one out on the board. With runners on the corners, Gausselin locked in and punched out the final two outs of the inning to keep the damage to just two runs.
Following the first inning, Gausselin locked in. He recorded two Ks in the second, two in the third, and one in the fourth to keep the Saints in the game. The Aquinas offense responded to the call in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Nathan Wilcox singled to right and
Ryan Gillings walked to put two runners on. A successful sacrifice bunt from
Luke LaCross moved the two runners into scoring position with two outs. The center fielder,
Nicolas Verdugo, stepped into the box and brought both runners home with a clutch single to left, tying the game.
Gausselin pitched a one-two-three inning in the fifth to keep the game level before
Mark Binkowski reached third to lead off the bottom of the frame due to a massive fielding error from Madonna.
Grant Martin hit him home with a sacrifice fly to give the Saints the lead.
Gausselin punched out his ninth batter of the game in the sixth to keep AQ in the lead before
Mason Hill took over pitching duties in the seventh. Hill recorded his fourth save of the season after impressively striking out the side to lock in the win.
A dominant pitching performance from Aquinas was the primary catalyst in the win. Gausselin and Hill recorded a combined 12 strikeouts and allowed only three hits over seven innings.
Game 2: Madonna 10, Aquinas 6
Both teams crushed the ball in this contest, totaling 25 hits across nine innings. However, the Crusaders managed to string more hits together, particularly in the second inning. Madonna racked up seven hits in the inning to bring six runners across home plate.
Ramsey Bousseau hit an RBI in the bottom of the third, but the visitors tacked on another three runs in the sixth to put Aquinas behind 10-1.
AQ grabbed one run back in the sixth, but it wasn't until the ninth that the Saints got back on the scoreboard. Bousseau hit another RBI with a single up the middle of the infield. Then, several batters later, Martin hit his second home run of the season with a towered three-run blast over the right-center fence.
Unfortunately, the offensive outburst was a little too little, too late. Madonna got the last out of the game two batters later to split the series.
By the Numbers
Verdugo and Bousseau led the team with three hits each.
Dawson Shearer, Martin, and Wilcox all added on two themselves.
Martin accounted for four of the nine Aquinas RBIs yesterday. Verdugo (2), Bousseau (2), and
JD Gillies (1) made up the other five.
Up Next
Aquinas is taking on the UM-Dearborn Wolverines today (Mar. 17) with a road doubleheader.
