The Benedictine University baseball team rallied from down 5-0 to record another heart stopping comeback and advance to the championship of the NACC Tournament with a 9-7 victory over regular season champion MSOE.
MSOE scored in each of the first three innings to lead 5-0.
Kevin Bushnell brought Benedictine back with one swing of the bat, a three-run opposite field blast to cut the margin to 5-3. MSOE tacked on two more in the fourth to open a 7-3 edge, the same score that Aurora led by on Friday in Benedictine's comeback.
David Rubin brought Benedictine within 7-4 in the bottom of the fourth with a groundout to plate
George Betevis.
Anthony Lenza drilled his first career homer, a two-run blast in the sixth as Benedictine pulled within 7-6.
Brennan Fisher and
DeShawnte Carraway hit back-to-back opposite field homers to give Benedictine the lead for the first time in the seventh and
Ryan Doubek, who has reached base in every game this year, floated a sacrifice fly to push the lead to 9-7.
Andrew Kurcz started and tossed four innings.
Austin Pizer picked up the win in relief, consistently keeping the ball down and facing the minimum over three innings with two strikeouts. Benedictine posted nine hits in the victory, the first of the year over MSOE, who swept Benedictine in a doubleheader earlier this season. Betevis, Bushnell and Lenza all tallied two hits.
Benedictine (31-11) will face Aurora at 11am on Sunday and will need to lose twice to not earn the title and automatic bid. Benedictine has come from behind in all three games of the tournament thus far.
