Baseball ends season with 1st trip to CCAC Tournament

Joliet, IL - The Calumet College Baseball team earned their first bid to the CCAC Baseball Tournament in program history with their 11 wins in CCAC play this season. After some big wins against tough opponents throughout the season, the #7 seed Crimson Wave were prepared for a tough fight against the #2 seed St. Ambrose University. After a day's rain delay, the Wave were set to play St. Ambrose on Friday evening. The Wave led the Fighting Bees until the 7th inning when SAU tied the game and went into extra innings. A comeback by St. Ambrose in the 10th inning gave them the 14-13 win. With the weather delay pushing games back, the Crimson Wave's elimination game was Saturday morning against St. Xavier. The Crimson Wave scored first but SXU kept scoring and maintained a strong lead over the Wave, winning in the 9 innings 13-4 and eliminating the Wave. 

Game 1: CCSJ 13, SAU 14

With Zach Zborowski starting on the mound, only allowing 1 earned run off of 6 hits, the Fighting Bees took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. The Wave scored their first runs in the top of the fourth inning after a single RBI from Gabriel Quinones and a wild pitch scored Michael Machnic to tie the game 2-2. St. Ambrose scored one run in the bottom of the fourth inning to take back their lead, but that didn't last long. The Wave scored 3 runs in the top of the fifth inning after a throwing error when Sean Moore stole second scored Maurey Garrett Jr. from third base, a sacrifice fly from Quinones scored Moore, and an SAU error scored Machnic. With a 5-3 lead in the sixth inning, the Crimson Wave scored again off an RBI from Moore to take a 6-3 lead. In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Fighting Bees scored one run, but the Wave still led 6-4. 

In the top of the seventh inning, a single from Idan Ortiz scored Joseph Castillo to take the Wave's lead to 7-4. The bottom of the seventh inning was difficult for the Wave as St. Ambrose pressed and forced errors from the Wave and scored 3 runs to tie the game at 7-7. Both teams held each other at the plate until the tenth inning. In the top, the Wave scored 5 runs that gave them a 13-7 lead. A single RBI from Nicholas Anderson, a 3-run Homerun from Machnic, a triple RBI that scored Quinones, and an RBI from Ortiz put the Wave up 13-7 going into the bottom of the tenth inning. A string of singles gave St. Ambrose their first runs since the 7th inning, and the momentum was in the Fighting Bees hands as they scored 7 runs to win the game in the final inning 14-13. 

Zborowski went sixth innings on the mound for the Wave. In the seventh inning, Gerardo Hernandez went to the mound but was soon relieved by Maxwell Everaert who went 3.1 innings for the Wave. During the tenth inning, Moore moved to the mound for Everaert, only to see six batters before being replaced by Anthony Rivera who only saw one batter. 

Game 2: CCSJ 4, SXU 13

Senior, Micahel Rios, started on the mound for the Crimson Wave in their elimination game. The Crimson Wave held the Cougars at the plate in the first inning and scored in their first plate appearances off a single RBI from Quinones. In the top of the second inning, SXU scored 3 runs off Rios as Everaert went to the mound for relief, the Cougars scored one more run before the end of the inning to take a 4-1 lead. The Crimson Wave scored another run in the bottom of the second inning off a sacrifice fly RBI from Sean Moore.  In the third inning, the Cougars scored another two runs off of Everaert as Cervantes went to the mound. St. Xavier finished the third inning scoring three runs and extending their lead to 7-2. 

There was no score change until the top of the fifth inning after a 3-run Homerun put the Cougars ahead 10-2 and Hernandez went to the mound to relieve Cervantes. In the top of the seventh inning, three more runs were scored and St. Xavier had a 13-2 lead over the Wave. In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Crimson Wave scored a couple of runs after an RBI walk from Moore and an HBP from Anderson to score two and put the score at 13-4. In the 9th inning, the Crimson Wave got a couple of hits but couldn't put enough together to make a run, losing the game 13-4 in 9 innings. 

Quinones led the Wave through the tournament going 5-10 with 3 RBIs, Garrett Jr. was 4-7 with 2 walks and a stolen base, and Moore was 3-8 with 3 RBIs 1 walk, and 2 stolen bases. 

The Crimson Wave finished their season 16-32 overall and 11-18 in CCAC play. This was not only the first time the Wave has earned a bid to the CCAC Tournament, but the team also recorded the most wins in program history with 16.