VERONA, Ill. - The Marian baseball team (7-24, 0-14 NACC) found themselves in a pair of close games but couldn't come through in the later innings falling to Edgewood by finals of 3-2 and 6-4.

The Sabres were on the board first to opening the scoring for the doubleheader in the top of the third when Tony Grannis would bring home Josh Bartelt.  Jake Falish would narrowly be cut down at the plate to hold the Sabre lead at 1-0.

The Eagles were able to answer in the bottom half of the inning with a pair of runs, however, and added to their lead in the bottom of the sixth.

Marian started a comeback in the top of the seventh when Falish would drive a single through the left side of the infield to plate Jordan Walker and cut the Edgewood lead to 3-2.  The Eagle bullpen would shut down the Sabres the remainder of the game, however, and EC hung on to the opening game win.

Falish led the Sabre offense going 3-4 with a run batted in, while Earl Vorpagel, Grannis, and Walker each had multi-hit games.  Kellen Shea (0-3) was solid to start for Marian taking the tough-luck loss scattering six hits over his 5.2 innings of work.  Jordan Bock bounced back after a rough start to throw 2.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen for MU.

Both offenses came out swinging to start game two with the two squads combining for seven runs after two innings. Tyler Thompson brought in Grannis to open the scoring in the top of the first before Edgewood answered with three runs in the bottom half of the inning.

The Sabres had a response putting together a big inning in the top of the second to retake the lead.  Walker would lay down a sacrifice bunt that was thrown into right field allowing Eddie Spies to score to open the inning.  Bartelt then singled down the left field line to bring in Brett Kramer before Falish would lift a sacrifice fly in center field to score Walker.  The three run inning gave Marian a slight 4-3 lead.

The Marian lead would only last an inning, however, as Edgewood would plate a run in both the bottom of the third and fourth.  The Eagle pitching staff would settle down after the big second inning as well and hold the Sabres scoreless the remainder of the game as EC went on to earn the sweep.

Vorpagel was the only Sabre to put together a multi-hit game going 3-5 at the dish.  Brady Nehring and Bock combined to throw 3.0 innings of scoreless relief.

Marian returns home for a non-conference game against Ripon Wednesday, April 27 with a 6 p.m. first pitch.

--FightBlueFight--