AURORA, Ill. - Fresh off a split with Wisconsin Lutheran on Monday evening, the Rockford University baseball team hit the road on Tuesday to take on the Aurora University Spartans. The Regents are in the midst of a brutal stretch in their schedule that has Rockford playing six games in three days with the final four coming on the road. Rockford played very well in the opener winning by a final score of 4-1 before falling in the nightcap 8-2.
Junior pitcher David Camacho (Elk Grove, Ill.) was sensational on the mound in game one for the Regents. Camacho tossed 8.2 innings scattering 8 hits and allowing just 1 run while striking out 8. This marks the third time this season Camacho has thrown at least 7 innings in a start, matching the total number of seven plus inning starts by the rest of the pitching staff combined. The junior earned his third win of the season on Tuesday and has already equaled his win total from last year.
Sophomore Thomas Bolen (Tucson, Ariz.) came in to record the final out of the game striking out the only batter he faced. It was the second straight night Bolen took the mound in crucial situation and was able to slam the door shut to earn a save.
Offensively the Regents got just enough timely hitting to provide the pitching staff with some run support. Rockford broke the scoreless tie in the fifth as the Regents were able to scratch across one run. Patrick O'Malley (Elk Grove, Ill.) began the rally as he drew a walk to begin the inning. Rockford then took advantage of back-to-back Spartan errors to load the bases with no one out. Left fielder Devin Standard (Monroe Center, Ill.) then delivered a sacrifice fly into left field to score O'Malley and put the Regents out in front 1-0. Two innings later, Rockford made it a 3-0 game as it took advantage of two more Aurora errors. Standard would again be involved in the scoring as he reached base on a fielder's choice before stealing second and third to put himself into scoring position with just one out. One batter later, Evan Frantini (Coal City, Ill.) drove in Standard as Rockford increased its lead to 2-0. The Regents would tack on one additional run as an Aurora error extended the inning allowing Rockford to take a 3-0 advantage. The Regents' final run of the game came in the eighth when senior Eric Gnippe (Hinsdale, Ill.) executed a squeeze play to score Patrick O'Malley as Rockford went on to win 4-1.
Game two did not go well as Rockford fell behind early and was never really able to recover. The Regents allowed 7 runs in the first two innings and were only able to score single runs in both the sixth and ninth innings. Evan Frantini drove in the Regents' first run of the game with an RBI double to score Chris Carlson (Schaumburg, Ill.) and make it a 7-1 game. Aurora would add an additional run in the bottom of the eighth before Carlson drew a bases loaded walk in the ninth to force in Rockford's other run. However, it was not enough as Aurora won game two and forced a split in the doubleheader.
After a rough start to the game the Rockford bullpen did a nice job containing the Spartan offense. The trio of Nickolas Hutten (Mundelein, Ill.), Chad Thompson (Morton Grove, Ill.) and Jake Morsch (Somonauk, Ill.) combined to throw 6.2 innings and allow just 2 runs while striking out 5.
The RU baseball team returns to the diamond on Wednesday, April 13 at Marian University. First pitch of the doubleheader is set for 2:00 PM.
