Contact: Nicholas Osterloo, Assistant Sports Information Director, 630-637-5324
ADRIAN, Mich. (Mar. 16, 2024) - Taking on No. 6 Denison University for the second time this season, the North Central College baseball team fell behind early and could not come back to lose 12-3 on Saturday afternoon at Nicolay Field.
Elijah Hammond overcame an error in the first inning as the Cardinal defense turned a double play with the bases loaded to keep the Big Red off the board. John Michael Scumaci walked and made his way to third base, but North Central did not capitalize, stranding him at third.
Denison's bats came alive in the second inning as a leadoff triple paved the way for a four-run frame on five hits.
The Cardinals responded in the bottom half of the third with a leadoff triple of their own as Taylor Kujak put himself into scoring position. He scored on a Big Red error that allowed Caleb Coberley to reach first before Scumaci and Luke Lehnen reached to load the bases. Coberley scored on a groundout as North Central cut the deficit in half, 4-2.
The Big Red put together another four-run inning in the fifth as they took advantage of a Cardinal error and used four hits to take an 8-2 lead.
Both pitchers settled in as CJ Jensik and Jaedin Kotecki pitched scoreless outings in their respective middle-inning appearances.
Trey Roach and Michael Davis singled to begin the bottom of the eighth inning before Dave Fitzpatrick used a sacrifice fly to plate Roach and bring the score to 8-3. The Cardinals could not push any further runs across as Dension tacked on four additional runs in the ninth to secure a 12-3 win.
Roach drove in and scored a run for the North Central offense while Kujak and Coberley also scored runs. Hammond fell to 0-3 with a 4.2-inning outing with eight runs and one strikeout.
The Cardinals finish off their busy spring break with another Top-10 matchup tomorrow, taking on No. 3 Baldwin Wallace University at 12 p.m. (ET) at Nicolay Field to round out the Adrian College Invite.
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