ROCKFORD, Ill. -- The Rockford University baseball team kicked off its conference schedule with a doubleheader against the Marian University Sabres on Saturday. The Regents shut out the Sabres, 2-0, in game one, and fell 10-4 in game two.
The Regents will return to action on Monday, March 23, for a home game against Beloit at 3 p.m. CDT.
Game One: Rockford 2, Marian 0
Kadin Bergstrom was 3-for-4 at the dish with two singles and a solo homer.
Nate Burdin drove in the only other run for the Regents in the game, going 1-for-4 with an RBI single.
Bryce Stanton went 2-for-4 with two singles.
It was a historic day on the bump for
Zach Fabis. He put together the first nine-inning, complete game shutout since March 26, 2017 (David Camacho vs. #16 Augustana). He gave up just four hits and struck out ten Sabres, the first nine-inning complete game shutout with ten or more strikeouts since April 21, 2012 (Jake Nicholson vs. Lakeland). The win makes Fabis 4-0 on the season.
All the offense came in the first inning. Bergstrom crushed a two-strike pitch over the left field wall on the Regents' second at-bat of the game.
Trent Lawrence and Stanton each singled to the left side before Burdin drove Lawrence in with a single up the middle. The score was 2-0 after one.
From there the score stayed. Fabis didn't give up a Marian hit until the third. The Regents' offense completely stalled after the first inning, amassing only four more hits and no runs for the rest of the outing.
Marian put a runner on third in each of the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings, but Fabis was able to hold them scoreless every time.
He closed it out in the top of the ninth, striking out his ninth and tenth batters of the day to blank the Sabres, 2-0.
Game Two: Marian 10, Rockford 4
Blaise Mace,
Kadin Bergstrom, and
Nate Burdin each had multi-hit outings in the loss. Mace tacked on an RBI double while
Ryan Stary was 1-for-4 with a two-RBI single.
Alex Easton got the start in game two, throwing three full innings. He struck out three while giving up seven hits and four earned runs.
Logan Bennett was solid in relief, giving up just one earned run in three-and-a-third.
The Regents' offense stayed cold for the first half of the game. They were held scoreless until the fifth.
The opposite was true of Marian. They took a 5-0 lead after three. The floodgates opened in the top of the fifth. Marian added four more runs to go up 9-0.
Rockford's bats woke up in the bottom half of the fifth. Burdin and
Zach Duke started the inning with a single and double. Stary drove them both in with his single through the right side. He was brought home by a Mace double to right field to make the score 9-3.
The Regents scored again in the sixth to continue the rally, with
Trent Lawrence being brought home by a
Bryce Stanton single after leading off the inning with a double to left center.
Unfortunately, the rally ended there. The Regents couldn't manage any more runs over the course of the last three innings. The Sabres tacked on an insurance run in the eighth to ensure a 10-4 win.
