Milwaukee, Wis. – In their final games of the season the Cardinal Stritch University baseball team took on the Saint Xavier Cougars. The Wolves weren’t able to slow down the powerful Cougars offense and through parts of the day struggled to get their own bats going. SXU won both games of the double header, 18-7 and 6-0.
Game one started out well for Stritch, as they took a 4-1 lead after two innings. Justin Calvert (Milwaukee, Wis.) gave up three hits and a walk in the opening inning, but managed to hold the Cougars to one. He sat them down in order in the following inning, giving the Wolves a chance to go ahead. Stritch got the lead using hits by John Bahm (Justice, Ill.), Paul Blair (Lakewood, Calif.), and Mike Ploch (Burlington, Wis.), along with multiple free bases from the Cougars. They hit through the order before SXU could close the inning, giving the Wolves a three run advantage.
But the Cougars fought back, immediately retaking the lead in the third. After a leadoff single, SXU sent two hard shots down the first and third baselines, just out of the reach of the Wolves. They then added two doubles and a sacrifice fly to make the score 5-4.
The back and forth continued when Stritch brought in two more runs in the bottom half of the third inning. Bahm got the Wolves started with a double to right center and was brought in on a similar double by Lucas Simon (Fond du Lac, Wis.). A single by Blair moved Simon to third, where he was able to score on a wild pitch, giving Stritch a 6-5 lead.
Justin Calvert seemed to lose his composure in the fourth, giving up six hits, including two homeruns before being replaced by Marcus Perleberg (Delafield, Wis.). Perleberg closed the inning after giving up an unearned run, but the damage was done as the Cougars had captured a 12-6 lead.
The only success the Wolves found in their comeback attempt took place in the bottom of the fourth, as Cody Tesch (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.) and Dean Mlachnik (Muskego, Wis.) strung two hits together and a grounder by Andy Abromaitis (Oak Creek, Wis.) brought in Tesch. The Cougars continued to score, however, and ended up winning 18-7.
Blair, Simon, and Bahm each had two hits in the game. Blair led with two RBI.
Though the Wolves were able to somewhat hold off SXU’s line-up in game two, the offense seemed to fall apart. Jason Calvert (Milwaukee, Wis.) took the mound for Stritch and gave up five runs off eight hits in five innings of work. Troy Engibous (Muskego, Wis.) took over in the sixth and gave up one run as the Cougars put together a couple two out hits up the middle.
But the pitching made little difference as the Wolves couldn’t get anything going in the box. Saint Xavier’s pitchers saw only three batters above the minimum. Bahm recorded the only two Stritch hits in the game. The strong performance by the Cougars’ led them to a 6-0 win.
The Wolves end the season with an overall record of 16-35 and a conference record of 8-22.