The baseball frenzy began on Saturday afternoon when the Maroons kicked off the busy weekend with a doubleheader against Beloit College. The first of the two games that day started with a pitcher’s duel between UChicago first-year Joe Liberman and Beloit fourth-year Ryan Kaveney.
Chicago struck first in the bottom of the fifth inning. With two outs, first-year outfielder Connor Hickey smacked a powerful liner, allowing third-year Nick Toomey to score. The one run was not enough though, as Beloit won the game 2–1.
In the second game of the doubleheader the Maroons fell 8–5 in 10 innings. Chicago got the scoring started in the top of the first inning. With two outs, the squad picked up momentum, successfully pulling off a double steal. Then first-year second baseman Max Brzostowski smacked an RBI double to give the Maroons a quick 3–0 lead.
The Maroons left the bases loaded three different times, allowing for many missed opportunities. This lack of execution came back to haunt the team when Beloit took a 5–3 lead in the top of the seventh inning. With two outs in the ninth inning, the Maroons rallied back to take the game into extra innings. First-year Josh Parks then came through in the clutch, knocking an RBI single to bring in Krob and tie the game 5–5. Unfortunately, the Bucs scored three times to grab a lead of 8–5 in the top half of the 10th inning.
On the second day of doubleheaders, the team played Rockford University, splitting the two games with one win and one loss. The first game proved to be a high scoring one as the Maroons won 12–10. Rockford kicked off the run frenzy in the third inning with an RBI scoring double, but the Maroons came out on top with high scoring in the third and fifth innings. Bryce Hinkelman, Ryan Scarpetta, and Evan Frantini, among others, played massive roles in the big win with booming bats and an explosive offense.
Following the impressive win, the Maroon men suffered a 12–2 loss in the second game, finishing after only seven innings. Nonetheless, Nick Toomey continued his hot streak well into the game, and was responsible for half of Chicago’s hits. The South Siders managed to score single runs in both the sixth and seventh innings, but the extent of their offense stopped there.
Looking back on the weekend, first-year Brady Sarkon said, “We had a pretty tough weekend overall. We were able to get one nice win this morning, but we are all pretty upset with our 1–3 finish on the weekend.”
However, the first-year remains optimistic about the team’s ceiling. “I believe we were the better team in all of the games we played,” he said.
Following a slightly rough weekend, the Maroons look to make strides of improvement against North Park University at 3 p.m. Wednesday at home.
