Lakers Swept By Fighting Bees At Home

CRESTWOOD, Ill. – Roosevelt's streak of six straight split doubleheaders came to a bitter end Friday afternoon at Ozinga Field.

The Lakers fell in both halves of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against St. Ambrose, surrendering 29 runs and 36 hits in the process. Roosevelt (18-17, 9-11 CCAC) fell behind early in the opener and never got the bats going in a 13-4 setback. Yet the Lakers had their chances in second game to respond and earn a split, but lost 16-10 in a slugfest.

St. Ambrose jumped all over Roosevelt's pitching in the first game with four runs in the first and four more in the second. The Lakers finally held the Fighting Bees off the scoreboard in the third inning, and began to mount a small comeback. Luca Paolucci was hit with a pitch for the first of three occasions over the course of the doubleheader, and he advanced on Sebastien Casillas' single. Jojo Mack moved over the runners then the Lakers got a big break in the form of a passed ball that allowed Paolucci to score.

Kekoa Ogawa hit a sacrifice fly to bring home a second run in the inning, but the six-run deficit was as close as the Lakers would get. St. Ambrose tacked on two of its own in the fourth, which Sammy Estrada responded to with a sacrifice fly RBI. Nolan Boettcher scored in the sixth inning on an infield single from Danny Holloway to close out the scoring for both sides.

The first four innings of the second game were chaotic with the teams scoring in seven of the eight half innings. The Fighting Bees may have scored in the top of the first inning, but the Lakers stormed back with three of their own in the bottom of the inning to take their first lead of the day.

Mack led off the frame with a double down the left-field line then an infield single from Ogawa put runners on the corner. James Berry tied the game with a routine single into right field then Jack Kieffer found the gap for an RBI double that put runners on second and third. Casillas brought in the final run of the inning with a groundout to the first baseman.

St. Ambrose scored four times in the second and four more times in the third before Ogawa resumed Roosevelt's scoring with an RBI single in the third. Bryce Hayman hit an important three-run homer to right field in the fourth inning to cut the deficit to 11-7, where it stayed until the bottom of the sixth. Hayman again delivered home runs, this time with a single through the right side, then Berry cut the deficit to two with a run-scoring single of his own.

Estrada gave the Lakers one final hope with an RBI double in the seventh inning to cut the St. Ambrose lead to 13-10. However, Roosevelt stranded Holloway at third as the courtesy runner and could not muster another hit the rest of the way.

The top of the lineup did its part for the Lakers in the second game with all of the first five batters in the order gaining at least two hits. Estrada also had two hits from the No. 6 position in the lineup.

These two teams will meet for two more games Saturday in Iowa with first pitch of the doubleheader scheduled at 1 p.m. against the Fighting Bees.