Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 TUCSON, Ariz. (SabreAthletics.com) – Marian returned to the diamond following their day off on Sunday with a doubleheader against Augsburg College. In game one, defensive mistakes cost Marian, as they surrendered six unearned runs in the 7-5 loss. In game two, however, they made up for it, pounding out 20 hits and not committing a single error in the 19-9 win.
Marian couldn't have asked for a better start to the first game of the doubleheader as they pushed across four runs before Augsburg could make it back to the dugout. With two outs, Marian had runners on second and third when junior
Casey Schreiner tripled to the right-center wall, bringing home junior
Ty Gellinger and senior
Chad Langley. A single by sophomore
Adam Ryan drove home Schreiner and back-to-back errors by the Augsburg infielders allowed Ryan to score.
The Auggies would find a way to get one back, however, in the bottom half of the first after Jonesy Buescher reached on an error by Langley and scored on a single by Andrew Julkowski.
Trailing 5-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth, Augsburg rattled off four hits and were aided by two defensive errors to score six runs and grab the 7-5 lead. The lead would stand to be enough as Steven Piette struck out the side in the top of the 7th to seal the victory.
"We got up early in the game, and not that we were trying to sit on that lead but we just couldn't be more productive and they had a big inning late and it stuck us," Head Coach Jason Bartelt said.
Six of the seven runs scored by Augsburg went unearned, leaving starting pitcher Tanner Biwer with the loss even though all he gave up was one earned run.
"We have to be efficient on the defensive side of things," Bartelt said. "There are a lot of quality teams that swing and when you give them extra outs its never going to end well."
Wanting to make up for their loss in game one, Marian took to the bats early on in game two, scoring seven runs in the bottom of the second on nine hits. Marian hit back-to-back-to-back doubles before hitting four singles in a row. Gellinger, the eighth man to bat in the inning, was the first out, but Marian still found a way to score as his fly ball went deep enough to score senior Matt Bromley from third base.
Thinking they had built a comfortable lead, Marian let the foot off the gas just enough to allow Augsburg to charge back. A bases loaded triple by Julkowski cut the Marian lead to 7-4, and the Auggies would add three more before the inning was over to tie the game at 7-7.
Two more Augsburg runs would come across the plate in the fourth, giving them the 9-7 lead. From there on out, it would be all Marian.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Sabres sent 11 batters to the plate, resulting in seven hits and seven runs, good for a 14-9 lead. In the inning, Gellinger doubled to left field, driving in two runs, while junior Jordan DeBoer followed up Gellinger's effort with a double off the left field wall, just narrowly missing a home run.
Even with the seven run lead, Marian refused to quit, adding two runs in the fifth and three runs in the sixth. When the dust finally settled, the Marian offense had erupted for 21 hits, including seven doubles.
Langley went 4-for-5 in game two with two RBIs, while sophomore Tony Grannis went 3-for-5, and DeBoer went 2-for-5 with four RBIs.
Junior Brett Barger threw two innings of relief, earning the win. Juniors Sam Memenga and Mitch Huston combined for three perfect innings to shut down the Augsburg offense after the fourth inning.
Marian will play a nine inning game tomorrow afternoon against UW-La Crosse. The Eagles are 3-4 on the year and are coming off a 32-11 win over Macalester College on Sunday.
Bartelt knows that the 20-hit effort won't be something that happens every game, especially against a squad like UW-La Crosse.
"We know we won't be able to put seven up on them in an inning," Bartelt said. "So we'll look to play some small ball and try to get one or two runs each inning."
First pitch against the Eagles will be at 3 p.m. CDT, and the game can be heard on SabreVision (http://tiny.cc/SabreVision).
