DECATUR, Ill. - The Carroll University baseball team experienced a heart-breaking day as it was swept by second-place Millikin University in a hard-fought, tension-filled College Conference of Illinois-Wisconsin doubleheader at Workman Family Baseball Field on Saturday afternoon, losing the opener 7-6 in 10 innings and 3-2 in the finale.
The Pioneers, who have lost three of their last four, dropped to 7-10 in the conference standings and 13-12 overall.
Carroll has suffered three one-run losses this season.
Mitchell Massino went 4-for-9 on the day for the Pioneers, finishing with a home run, two doubles and four RBIs.
Massino, who currently has a .305 batting average with a team-leading 26 RBIs and .695 slugging percentage, is the squad's co-leader in both home runs (7) and doubles (10).
GAME 1
Massino went 2-for-5 with two doubles and two RBIs to lead a 15-hit offensive attack for Carroll in the first game.
Brad Vosters and
Dylan Callahan each followed with two hits and drove in a run for the Pioneers, who stranded 11 baserunners.
TJ Pfaffle,
Benton Holly and
Trevor Benz each added two hits in the spirited contest.
Carroll, which amassed six extra-base hits (including five doubles and a triple) scored its first run in the top of the fifth inning on a game-tying RBI sacrifice fly out to right field by Vosters.
Millikin, which entered the day hovering just outside of the d3baseball.com Top-25 and tied for 30th in the nation, answered with a single run in the bottom of the fifth and three runs in the sixth to extend its lead to 5-1.
Carroll trimmed the deficit as Callahan responded with a run-scoring sacrifice fly out to right field and
Justin Baker delivered an RBI single to center field.
Millikin increased the lead to 6-3 on an inside-the-park home run in the eighth.
Carroll showed its character and grit by answering with a three-run game-tying rally in the ninth, fueled by a run-scoring double down the left-field line by
Alec Honickel and a clutch, pressure-packed double to left-center field by Massino to ultimately force extra innings.
The Pioneers fell victim to a Millikin walk-off two-out run-scoring single in the 10th.
Brett Buzzelli, who recently earned CCIW Pitcher of the Week honors, got the start and yielded five runs on eight hits with three strikeouts and three walks through 5 1/3 innings.
Josh Streu and
Dawson Kiphart combined to allow one run on three hits in working the next 2 2/3 innings.
Josh Nitch took the tough loss, scattering three hits the rest of the way.
Mason McGahey went 3-for-5 and scored the game-winner for Millikin, which had 14 hits.
GAME 2
Massino went 2-for-4 with two RBIs in the finale, highlighted by a two-run homer (his team co-leading seventh of the season) to left-center field in the top of the second.
Millikin, which improved to 12-3 in conference and 19-4 overall, trimmed the deficit to 2-1 in the bottom of the second as it scored a run as the result of an error and tied the game on an RBI groundout in the fourth.
The Big Blue drove in the winning run on an RBI walk-off sacrifice fly in the ninth.
Curtis Sheahan, who also earned CCIW Pitcher of the Week accolades this season, took the tough-luck pitching loss for Carroll, allowing three runs on seven hits with seven strikeouts and no walks through eight complete innings.
Kyle Kane went 2-for-4 and scored the winning run for Millikin, which had seven hits.
Stay up to date on Carroll baseball by going online to www.gopios.com, or by following the Pioneers on Facebook (Carroll University Athletics), Twitter (@pio_athletics), and Instagram (@pio_athletics)
