CHICAGO, Ill. - The Davenport baseball team wrapped up the regular season by winning three-of-four games over the weekend at Roosevelt. DU was able to take the series finale by a score of 5-4 on Sunday and in the process finish 37-13 overall and an impressive 21-3 in conference play.
The Panthers opened the scoring in the fourth inning as
Justin Johnson had a RBI single to score
Michael Tchavdarov. He led off the inning with a double.
Xander Reisbig then reached on an error and Johnson was able to score from second for a 2-0 lead.
Conor Gausselin got the start and threw three scoreless innings to start the game.
Connor Apligian entered to start the fourth inning and pitched a clean one retiring the Lakers in order. The fifth inning was not as kind as the Lakers took a 3-2 lead on three hits. All three runs came after a pair of strikeouts. Quinn O'Bryan singled and Harrison Kowalski walked to start the rally. James Berry tied the game with a two-run scoring triple to right center and scored the go-ahead run on a double to left center by Kekoa Ogawa.
Davenport answered right back in the sixth inning with three runs on three base knocks. Johnson led off with a double down the left field line. Reisbig grounded out to second to allow Johnson to move to third.
Cody Hultink had a RBI single to center to tie the game.
Dylan Pawenski gave DU a 4-3 lead with a RBI triple and scored the fifth run on a
Garrett Swan sacrifice fly.
Brayden Flanders entered to start the sixth and got three groundouts. He allowed two hits in the seventh inning by induced a ground-ball double play to end the inning. The Panthers could not add any more runs in the eighth as the Lakers got one run closer. Ogawa was hit by a pitch to lead off and Luke Ulbert was also hit to runners on first and second. The runners moved up a base on a sacrifice bunt and then Sebastian Casillas had a RBI grounder to second. The tying run was stranded at third as Flanders got a grounder to third to end the inning.
Davenport left a pair of base in the ninth and
Mason Hill came on to the save situation in the bottom of the ninth. He got Roosevelt out in order including two strikeouts looking to end the game. Johnson and
Chase Kemp went 2-for-4 with Johnson scored two runs. Kemp and
Logan Todd each recorded a stolen base. Apligian got the win improving to 2-0, while Hill recorded his fourth save of the season.
The two teams will now face each other again on Thursday, May 8 at 3:00 PM in the first game of the GLIAC Tournament in Lansing, Mich.
