VERONA, Wis. – The Edgewood College baseball team rallied from an early hole to take the second game of a doubleheader and earn a split with Wisconsin Lutheran College on Sunday. The Eagles claimed a 3-2 victory in the second game after losing a 4-3 decision in the opening game.
Edgewood College (4-12, 1-3 NACC) fell behind 2-0 in the first inning of the second game, on a two-run double Wisconsin Lutheran College's Kasey Zdroik. The Eagles tied the game up in the third inning when Garrett Bogucki singled to right field score Alex Fowler. In the next at-bat, Edgewood College pulled off an unexpected double steal with Bogucki swiping second base and Nick Cheaney scampering home to tie the game at 2-2. In the bottom of the fourth, Callen Gavic walked and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Nik Visone. One out later, Bryan Sternig singled into the right-center field gap to give the Eagles a 3-2 lead.
From there, the Eagles' pitching staff took control. Alex Meister threw six strong innings before turning it over to Steve Gavin. Gavin escaped a 1st-and-3rd jam with no outs in the seventh, and then had to hold his breath for the final out of the game. KJ Banse of Wisconsin Lutheran (5-14, 3-3 NACC) drove a deep shot to right field with two outs in the ninth that looked like it may tie the game. However, Josh Ottum tracked the ball to the fence and snared Banse's drive at the top of the wall to end the game.
Nick Cheaney had two hits for the Eagles, while Sternig and Bogucki each had run-scoring singles. Meister improved to 2-0 allowing two earned runs on six hits and striking out two batters. Gavin's first save of the season was his sixth save of his career which ties him for the Edgewood College school record with Danny Appino (2014-17).
The tables were turned the opposite way in the first game, as the Eagles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the third inning. Edgewood College strung together four straight two-out hits, highlighted by Ryan Fields two-run single that scored Sternig and Alex Fowler. The Warriors answered with four unearned runs off Eagles starter Adam Eck thanks to two errors and a passed ball in the fifth. Peter Perales brought the Eagles within a run at 4-3 with an RBI single in the seventh, but Edgewood College couldn't tie the game.
Eck had a remarkable day despite taking the loss. He struck out a career-high 14 batters, which was also the second highest total in program history. Only Dave Scheidell's 16 strikeouts against Maranatha Baptist on May 6, 2002 was more than Eck's total on Sunday. In all, Eck, Jeff Wolf and Will Mossa combined to strikeout 18 WLC batters on the day. At the plate, Perales was the only Eagle with two hits, going 2-for-3 with a run batted in. Fields was 1-for-3 with two RBIs. Sternig stole his 10th base of the season.
Edgewood College faces a busy week at Stampfl Field. On Tuesday at noon, the Eagles will host Lakeland University in a make-up of Saturday's doubleheader that was postponed. The next day Edgewood College welcomes Eureka College for a non-conference doubleheader.
