CAROL STREAM, Ill. - The Carroll University baseball team defeated Elmhurst University 13-5 in a College Conference of Illinois-Wisconsin regular-season finale at Lee Pfund Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
It was the third consecutive victory for Carroll, which finished the regular season 9-9 in the conference standings and 18-21 overall.
The dominant road performance took on added significance as it clinched the No. 5-seed in the CCIW Tournament for the Pioneers, who will be making their second straight appearance in the prestigious post-season event.
Regular-season conference champion North Central is currently atop the league standings (13-4), Augustana and Millikin are tied for second (11-7), Wheaton follows in fourth (10-7), Carroll finished in sole possession of fifth (9-9), Illinois Wesleyan and North Park are tied for sixth (7-10), Carthage is eighth (7-11) and Elmhurst is ninth (4-14).
The Pioneers, who generated a single-game season-high 19 runs in the second game of a CCIW doubleheader versus North Park on April 23rd (19-15), have scored 13 or more runs in six victories this season.
Casey Mir went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored to power a 13-hit offensive attack for Carroll, which finished with three extra-base hits (including two home runs and one double). Trevor Benz and Lane Scott each followed with two hits.
Benton Holly, Mason Hege and Matt Pestel drove in two runs each for the Pioneers, who turned in an error-free defensive effort.
Carroll scored the first runs of the showdown in the top of the second inning on a two-run homer to left field by Hege (his fourth of the season.
Elmhurst, which finished with eight hits and stranded 10 baserunners, scored three runs in the bottom of the second to claim a 3-2 lead.
Carroll tied the game in the third as Brad Vosters scored as the result of a throwing error and extended the lead to 7-3 with four runs on two hits in the fourth.
Vosters scored on a wild pitch, Mir followed with an RBI single to right field and Holly capped the key fourth-inning offensive scoring surge on a two-run homer to center field.
With the stand-out effort, Holly tied the program record for career home runs (22) equaling the mark established by former Carroll standout Dylan Callahan (2017-2021).
Holly, a standout third baseman from Mundelein, Ill., also moved into a tie for second place in the Carroll record books for home runs in a single season (11).
Pestel contributed a run-scoring sacrifice fly out to center field in the fifth to increase the lead to 8-3 and broke the game wide open with five runs on five hits in the seventh.
Mitchell Massino delivered an RBI pinch-hit single to center field and eventually scored on a wild pitch to help ignite the five-run spree, Pestel had a run-scoring double to right-center field, Vosters had an RBI single to left field and Mir added the final run on an RBI single to left field.
The Pioneers utilized five pitchers in the contest including starter Brett Buzzelli, Zach Tuss, Andrew Stekiel, Jake Nitch and Connor Nolen.
Buzzelli, a sophomore right-hander from Homer Glen, Ill. who earned his third victory of the season to improve his individual record to 3-3 overall, allowed three earned runs on six hits with four strikeouts and two walks through six complete innings.
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