Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
WESTFIELD, Ind. (Feb. 25, 2023) - Squaring off against the College of St. Scholastica in the morning and Otterbein University in the nightcap, the North Central College baseball team beat the Saints 11-3 before falling to Otterbein 3-1 in their second game of the day at the Grand Park Tournament.
After a three-up, three-down half inning from starter Ryan Behling, Dom Listi tripled to score Rob Marinec who singled the at bat before. Jared Wojcik walked and stole second before Luke Lehnen plated Listi to put the Cardinals up 2-0 after one inning of play.
The next inning, Brad Novak belted a leadoff triple to center field. John Michael Scuamci scored him to increase North Central's lead to three. In the bottom of the third, Marinec doubled to center field, followed by a Listi walk, and a Wojcik single to load the bases. Following a fielder's choice, Michael Davis used a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Listi and giving the Cardinals a 4-0 advantage.
St. Scholastica took advantage of two North Central errors to put the lead in half. The Cardinals responded in the bottom half of the fourth. Justin Rios singled to right field in the first North Central at bat of the inning. Marinec hit his double of the contest to score Rios, putting the Cardinals up, 5-2.
The Saints added another run in the fifth. Wojcik bunted his way on and stole second in the bottom of the fifth. Davis hit an RBI double as North Central led 6-3 after five innings of action.
In Behling's last inning on the mound, he struck out the first batter on his way to another scoreless frame. The Cardinals poured it on in the sixth as Scumaci hit a leadoff double and scored on Marinec's third home run of the season. Listi walked and stole second before Lehnen singled to score him. Davis plated Lehnen from second base on an RBI single, putting North Central ahead, 10-3.
AJ Kutcher entered the game on the mound and posted a three-up, three-down seventh. Joe Hamilton walked in a pinch hit appearance and moved to second on an intentional walk to Marinec. Listi singled to right field as Hamilton came around to put the Cardinals up by eight, 11-3.
Kutcher finished the game to capture his first save of the season. Behling picked up the win as he threw six innings with six strikeouts and zero earned runs. Marinec tallied four hits in four at bats with three RBI and two runs. Listi scored three times with two hits and two RBI. Davis drove in three runs on his two hits.
In a battle of the Cardinals, North Central took on Otterbein for game two. In the top of the third inning, Marinec singled down the left field line and stole second to put himself in scoring position. He advanced to third base on a List single to right field. Wojcik pushed the first run of the game across on a sacrifice fly, plating Marinec.
Otterbein evened the score at 1-1 in the fourth on a double followed by an RBI single.
Starter Luke Lamm kept Otterbein at one run until the sixth inning when they added two runs to hold a 3-1 lead heading into the seventh inning. North Central's offense was held hitless the rest of the way as Otterbein improved to 3-0 with a 3-1 win over North Central.
Rios, Marinec, Listi, and Dave Fitzpatrick captured hits for North Central while Lamm struck out 10 over his six innings. Jason Shanner racked up four strikeouts in two innings on the mound.
The Cardinals head to Louisville next weekend for a three-game slate against Spalding University, Kalamazoo College, and Denison University. Both Kalamazoo and Denison made the NCAA Tournament a year ago.
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