ROCKFORD, Ill.- Coming off of two tough close losses on Saturday, things did not get any easier for the Rockford University baseball team. They hosted the Wisconsin Lutheran College Warriors in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference doubleheader. Falling twice to Wisconsin Lutheran, Rockford beat themselves in game one and were unable to finish off a late rally in game two.
Kaleb Rich (Washington, Iowa/Washington) was on the mound for the Regents to begin game one. Things did not start smoothly for Rich as he allowed three hits and two runs in the first inning. Rockford would strike back in the bottom of the third. Brian Wiest (Lake Zurich, Ill./Lake Zurich) and Connor McHugh (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Schaumburg) started off the inning with back-to-back singles. After a sacrifice bunt Adrian Gameros (Rialto, Calif./Carter) drove in the first run for the Regents on a groundout. It was Wiest and McHugh starting things again in the bottom of the fifth inning. With one out, they were both hit-by-pitches. Back-to-back walks by Bobby Barrera (Waukegan, Ill./Waukegan) and Gameros led to another run being driven in on Gameros' walk. But Rockford could not add on any more runs in the inning.
Rich would throw up zeros in the second through fifth innings without much trouble, but he would hit a wall in the sixth inning. The Warriors singled to start the inning. A sacrifice bunt and another single led to a run. A single, a walk, and another single resulted in two more runs, chasing Rich from the game. Wisconsin Lutheran would tack on two more runs on another single before the inning ended. Rockford scored another run in the bottom of the sixth inning with Wiest driving in Matt Grimes (O'Fallon, Mo./Fort Zumwalt West) on a double. Grimes reached base earlier on a single. The Warriors added three more runs in the eighth and one more run in the ninth to seal a 11-3 victory.
Game two was a much closer game with Rockford threatening throughout the game to break things open, but the game changing hit could not be found. Facing Jacob Gorsuch (Cherry Valley, Ill./Jefferson), the Warriors were able to score single runs off of him in the first, third, fourth, and sixth innings. Overall Gorsuch gave up four runs, two earned, on six hits and four walks, striking out four batters.
Rockford tied the game up in the bottom of the second. Chris Holke (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) led off with a double and was moved to third on a Cole Logemann (Lena, Ill./Lena-Winslow) single up the middle. Jake McKnight (Monroe Center, Ill./Stillman Valley) followed him up by hitting a ground ball to the shortstop who flipped it to the second basemen who then threw out McKnight at first. Logemann hustled to second to beat out the throw to spurn a potential inning ending double play by Wisconsin Lutheran. Holke scored on McKnight's ground out.
Facing a 5-1 deficit in the bottom of the seventh inning the Regents finally started to put together some hits. The sophomores Logemann and McKnight started the inning with back-to-back singles. The next two Regents were retired before LaMore hit a groundball to the shortstop who could not come up with it, resulting in Logemann and McKnight both scoring and cutting the Warriors lead in half. Grimes singled to put two runners on but that would be all for Rockford in the inning. Wisconsin Lutheran would add another run in the eighth inning to take a 6-3 lead.
Rockford continued to put runners on in the bottom of the eighth inning. Holke started the inning with a walk. After a flyout Logemann also walked. A strikeout resulted in the second out of the inning. Chris Senn (Victorville, Calf./Silverado) pinch-hit and was hit by a pitch to load the bases. With the tying run on first base Rockford could not find the big hit they needed and the inning ended with a strikeout. The Regents would go down in order to drop the game 6-3.
