AURORA, Ill. - It's been nine long days since the Rockford College baseball team played its last game, and once again weather forced the Regents to move yet another home doubleheader on the road. This time the baseball team went on the road to face the defending Northern Athletics Conference Champion Aurora University Spartans. The Regents split their two regular season meetings last year with the Spartans. However, Rockford was looking for a bit of revenge after Aurora eliminated them from the NAC Tournament ending their season. This season's matchup turned out to be similar to last year as the two teams split the doubleheader with Rockford winning game one 6-5 and Aurora winning game two 6-3.
The Regents played one of their most complete games of the season thus far in game one. Rockford was able to combine great starting pitching, solid hitting and good relief pitching to knock off Aurora. Senior Daryn Streed (Belvidere, Ill./North) was rewarded with his second win of the season for another great performance on the mound. Streed gave his team 6.2 innings on the mound surrendering 3 runs while striking out 8 Spartans. Sophomore Michael Kiviranta (Schaumburg, Ill./Hoffman Estates) closed the door in game one throwing the final 2.1 innings in his first relief appearance of the season. Kiviranta gave up 2 runs off of 4 hits and struck out a batter. The sophomore made just one mistake when he gave up a two-out 2-run home run in the ninth, but dug down to retire the next batter to pick up his first collegiate save.
Offensively the Regents were able to score six early runs in support of Streed and Kiviranta. Chris Senn (Apple Valley, Calif./Silverado) jump-started the offense in the second inning with a leadoff double. Terry Wiltshire (Elizabeth, Ill./River Ridge) promptly drove in Senn with an RBI single into right center giving Rockford a 1-0 lead. Later in the inning Jacob Gorsuch (Cherry Valley, Ill./Jefferson) extended the Regents lead to 2-0 on an RBI ground ball. Two innings later Matt Grimes (O'Fallon, Mo./Fort Zumwalt West) sparked another run-scoring inning with his second double of the game. Juniors Jacob Gorsuch and Matt Szytz (Huntley, Ill./Huntley) followed with back-to-back bunt singles scoring Grimes and pushing the Rockford lead to 3-0. The Regents then put the game out of reach scoring 3 more runs in the bottom of the sixth. It was once again Gorsuch and Szytz driving in the runs for Rockford. Gorsuch drove in the first run on an infield single with the bases loaded, and Szytz followed with a 2-run single into left field to extend the lead to 6-0. The Spartans did mount a comeback in the final 3 innings, but it was to no avail as the Regents held on for a 6-5 victory.
Rockford fell behind early in game two and made a comeback attempt but was never able to grab the lead. Aurora took a quick 2-0 advantage in the top of the first inning off of 3 hits. However, the Regents cut the lead in half with a run in the bottom of the second. Following a pair of one-out singles by Grimes and Scott Swiderek (Chicago, Ill./Walter Lutheran), Gorsuch continued his big day driving in his fourth run on one of his five hits making it a 2-1 game. However, Aurora essentially put the game away scoring four unanswered runs over the next five innings and grabbing a 6-1 advantage. Rockford's final two runs of the game came in the bottom of the eighth courtesy of a pair of pinch hitters. Joe Campe (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) drove in Streed on an RBI single and Kyle LaMore (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley) followed with an RBI double scoring Campe to cut the Aurora lead to 6-3. Unfortunately the Regents were unable to get any closer and fell in game two by a final score of 6-3.
