ELMHURST, Ill. - The Carroll University baseball team defeated Elmhurst University 7-5 in a sunny, cool College Conference of Illinois-Wisconsin game at Butterfield Park on Sunday afternoon.
It was the second consecutive victory and earned a series split for Carroll, which improved to 10-12 in the conference standings and 16-14 overall.
Carroll, 6-7 overall on the road this season, collected the first run of the contest in the top of the third inning in aggressive fashion as Brad Vosters scored on a double steal.
Elmhurst responded with two runs in the bottom of the third, scoring its first run as the result of a fielding error followed by a run-scoring single.
Carroll scored five runs on five hits and took advantage of an error to regain a 6-2 lead in the momentum-shifting fifth, including a one-out game-tying RBI single to left field by Mitchell Massino, a two-out run-scoring single to left field by Alec Honickel, an RBI single to right field by Nick Angus and a two-run single by Trevor Benz.
Elmhurst generated three runs on four hits in the seventh to trim the deficit to 6-5 but couldn't get any closer.
Carroll's final run came in the eighth on an RBI single to right field by Massino, who went 2-for-5 with two RBIs and a run scored to power a nine-hit attack. Honickel and TJ Pfaffle each followed with two hits for the Pioneers, who finished with five stolen bases.
Scotty Starovich was the winning pitcher and improved to 4-1 overall, allowing five runs on eight hits with two strikeouts and three walks through six complete innings.
Josh Streu and Dawson Kiphart each pitched a scoreless inning before Jake Nitch delivered an unblemished ninth to pickup a save.
Elmhurst dropped to 9-14 in conference and 13-17 overall.
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