LOVES PARK, Ill. - The Rockford University baseball team (12-13, 4-10 NACC) split its pair of games against Dominican University (18-12, 9-7 NACC) on Sunday night. Rockford and Dominican consistently traded blows on offense with plenty of lead changes to keep the games close. The Regents produced that offense the majority of the day, but were able to mount a comeback (down by four runs) and take the win in the nightcap by three.
Neil Freeman had a solid outing between the two games, he finished five-for-nine with three doubles, a home run, and three RBIs.
Game 1
- The opening batter of the first game for Dominican hit a homerun to open the scoring and take a 1-0 lead. The Stars later built on this lead with a fielder's choice that scored a runner from third to make it 2-0.
- The Regents finally had their breakthrough thanks to one swing of the bat by Neil Freeman. Freeman sent a two-run home run over the wall and tied the game going into the fourth inning.
- Dominican responded, however, hitting a two-run home run in the next half-inning to take the lead again at 4-2.
- Rockford had a huge fourth inning that put them back in the lead. Jake Bilotta scored Ryan Smith thanks to a sacrifice fly to get the inning started. Jared Herzog then hit a triple to right-center to score two more runs, and then he scored himself on a wild pitch to pull ahead 6-4.
- DU forced another lead change in the sixth inning due to a double that scored one, a bases loaded walk that scored another, and then a ground out that allowed the seventh run across the plate and the lead to go back to Dominican.
- RU wasn't giving up, Jared Herzog hit a double to score one run and later scored himself on a wild pitch. Rockford was in front again 8-7.
- A home run and infield fly helped out the Stars as they took back the lead once again at 9-8. Dominican added some extra runs in the top of the ninth on a solo home run and a two-run double to make it 11-8 going into the final half inning.
- The Regents did manage to pull two runs back when Aaron Monti hit a triple to score one and Tyler Peake hit a single to score the final run of the opener, Rockford needed to bounce back in the second game, losing the first 12-10.
Game 2
- Dominican opened up the scoring early in the first again with a single through the left side that scored one.
- Rockford came up in the bottom of the first and after a couple of errors, scored a pair of runs off a Jared Herzog single to take the Regents first lead of the game 2-1.
- DU hit two home runs in the third inning that scored three runs total, followed up by a single and wild pitch that got two more runs across the plate to build a large Dominican lead 6-2.
- It took a while to respond, but the Regents had a big fifth inning. An error helped Jake Bilotta score, Jonathan Leon hit a single to score one, Peyton McCray hit a double to score another, and a groundout scored another run to tie the game at six all going into the sixth inning.
- The Stars had no problem breaking that tie, A single to right field brought around a run to score and break the tie 7-6.
- Rockford loaded the bases heading up to Jonathan Leon's at-bat, and he came through with a 2-run single to take the lead once again 8-7.
- The Regents got some very important extra runs in the bottom of the eight. Jared Herzog hit a single to score a runner, and Neil Freeman came up after and hit a double to score the final run of the game at 10-7.
- Christian Dahlstrom came in and finished the job, sending the Stars down in order to win the nightcap 10-7.
Game 1
- Jared Herzog hit 3-for-4 with a double, a triple, 3 runs scored, and 3 RBIs.
- Neil Freeman went 3-for-5 with a double and a home run. He also had 2 RBIs.
- Aaron Monti was 2-for-5 with a triple and an RBI.
Game 2
