GAME ONE
GAME TWO

LISLE, Ill. -- The Benedictine University baseball team posted its first three-game win streak of the season by sweeping past Marian University at home on Saturday in Northern Athletics Conference action.

BENEDICTINE 15, MARIAN 3 -- Game One (Seven Innings)
The Eagles scored four first inning runs, slugged out 14 hits, and scored in all but one inning to cruise to the opening victory.

Derek Klinetobe struck out to begin the ballgame but reached on an error. He scored the first run of the game moments later when Josh Zenawick singled to center after a sacrifice bunt. Dan Zust made it 2-0 with an RBI single, and Kevin Hendricks capped the scoring with a two-run double to left.

Marian battled back and plated three runs in the top of the second to pull within 4-3 but they were the lone runs of the contest for the visitors. Zenawick homered to right with one out in the bottom of the second to push Benedictine to a 5-3 edge which gave starting pitcher Kyle Kukulski plenty of breathing room. The Eagles went on to score 11 unanswered runs.

Kukulski went the distance in the shortened game, throwing all seven frames. He scattered five hits while walking three and striking out seven to tally his third win of the season.   

Derek Klinetobe hit a three-run blast deep to left in the third with two outs to give Benedictine an 8-3 lead. The Eagles tallied four more times in the fourth inning and contributed three in the sixth to account for the final total. 

The Eagles were able to use 17 players in the rout. Zenawick, Zust, Gino Miglio, Mitch McMeen, and Uli Ortiz all recorded two hits in the affair. Klinetobe and Hendricks knocked in three runs apiece.

BENEDICTINE 5, MARIAN 3 -- Game Two
The Eagles held off Marian, leaving the tying runs on base in the ninth inning as Nick DePaul won his first start of the season.

DePaul worked into the sixth inning, lasting 5.2 innings in his first appearance as a starter. He had pitched six times as a reliever. DePaul allowed just an unearned run on six hits to go with a walk and three strikeouts. 

Benedictine struck first in the bottom of the second inning. Uli Ortiz drove home Tom Higgins with a two-out single to center. The Eagles added two more runs in the fifth to go up 3-0. Colin Gilreath tripled to right-center with two runners on base to chase Marian starter Dustin Andrus from the game.

The Sabres scored in the top of the sixth to pull within 3-1 before two runs crossed in the bottom of the inning. Uli Ortiz singled home Mitch McMeen and then scored himself when Josh Zenawick was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. 

Single runs in the eighth and ninth crept Marian to within 5-3, but Michael Cottier overcame a pair of walks to leave the tying runs on base and pick up his third save of the year.

Nick Karakosta was 3-for-4 at the plate with a run scored. Derek Klinetobe, Colin Gilreath, and Uli Ortiz added two hits each in the nightcap.

Benedictine (12-13, 7-3 NAC) has won three games in a row for the first time this season. The Eagles will look to build on the streak tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. when they travel to Wisconsin to meet Concordia Wisconsin.

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