Baseball loses close game to St. Xavier

Whiting, IN- Calumet College Baseball hosted St. Xavier for the first game of a 3-game series on Thursday. After coming off an 11-inning win over Lincoln College, the Crimson Wave were ready for a tough game against the Cougars and were looking for their 2nd CCAC win of the week. 

Zach Zborowski started on the mound for the Crimson Wave and nearly went the distance, pitching 6.1 innings with 3 strikeouts and giving up 4 runs, 1 walk, and 2 HBPs. After two scoreless innings, St. Xavier scored first with two runs in the top of the 3rd inning, but the Crimson Wave countered in the bottom of the 3rd with a 2-run homer from Michael Machnic to tie the game 2-2 going into the 4th inning. Zborowski and the Crimson Wave defense held off the Cougars while they scored another two runs in the bottom of the 5th inning to take the lead 4-2. 

In the top of the 7th inning, St. Xavier got two runners on with one out and Anthony Rivera went to pitch for Zborowski. A sacrifice flyball from St. Xavier and a balk from Rivera gave the Cougars two runs to tie the game at 4-4. In the bottom of the 7th, the Crimson Wave took advantage of St. Xavier's errors and walks to load the bases and as Yashion Boswell drew a walk the Crimson Wave scored to bring the score to 5-4. In the 8th inning, both CCSJ and SXU pitchers got 1-2-3 innings, and the Crimson Wave had the 5-4 lead going into the top of the 9th inning. The first St. Xavier batter lead off with a double to left field so the Wave made a pitching change, Sean Moore in for Rivera. Moore was effective for the Wave, getting an instant 2-outs with a strikeout and fly out. The third batter to see Moore reached on an error in center field that scored the tying run. After that, the St. Xavier offense had the momentum and scored two more runs to take the lead 7-5 going into the bottom of the 9th inning. The Crimson Wave had runners at first and second to give themselves a chance to score, but the Wave couldn't quite come up with the momentum to get the runners home, giving St. Xavier the 7-5 win. 

Mechanic led the Crimson Wave offense going 2-4 on the day with a walk and 2 RBIs. Other RBIs and clutch at-bats for the Wave came from Nicholas Anderson, Idan Ortiz, and Boswell. 

With weather cooperation, the Crimson Wave will play at St. Xavier on Saturday in a doubleheader to complete the series.