CCAC

[Baseball] Bees battle for second seed; earn split with Saints

The Fighting Bees baseball team battles it out with the St. Francis Fighting Saints this weekend, vying for the the number two spot in the CCAC standings.Friday's game 1 was shades of St. Ambrose's game againts Olivet Nazarene earlier in the week. The Bees rode a spectacular pitching performance but were unable to get any runs across on the other side of the ball, falling to a final score of 1-0.Conor O'Hara was lights out on the hill for the Fighting Bees, going the distance on three hits and two strikeouts. O'Hara did not surrender a single earned run in the contest; the Saints lone run came on a sacrfice fly in the second inning, with the runner reaching scoring position on a throwing error earlier in the frame.The Bees were threatening in the final inning. Cooper Huckabone lifted a lead-off single and was then moved over to second on a Max Rumpf base hit. The Bees implemented some speed on the basepaths by pinch-running Hayden Kingsbury and Tyreece Morgan, but were unable to score the runs the needed with a groundout and a lineout.The St. Ambrose bats came to life in game 2 of Friday's doubleheader. The Bees pumped out 15 hits en route to the 8-6 victory.After surrendering the first two runs of the game to St. Francis in the second, the Fighting Bees put up a four-spot in the following frame and led for the remainder of the game. Bryce Vincent, Huckabone, and Rumpf all tallied RBIs in the big inning.Michael dudek picked up the win on six inning as the starter. Nick Hernandez collected the three-inning save to nail down the win.Saturday's rubber match did not go in St. Ambrose's favor, with the Saints leading the bout from start to finish. Mike Snow was able to cut the lead to one off a Mike Snow sacrifice groundout that scored Kyel Alexander. This is the closest the Bees would get however, as the Saints would put up a four-spot in the following frame to put it out of reach.Francis Quinn was credited with the loss. Zietara led the game in hits (4) and steals (2).St. Ambrose now sits in the four seed in the CCAC standings, a half-game back from St. Francis in third and one game back from Saint X in second.The Fighting Bees will close out the regular season with a makeup game at Trinity International Monday afternoon.