JOLIET, IL. - It took extra innings for the University of St. Francis (33-17/19-10) to take game one from Judson University (29-22/19-10), 4-3, in eight innings and then the Saints grabbed game two, 12-5, in a rain shortened five inning game. With the losses, Judson's push for the NAIA National Tournament ended as Purdue-North Central split their double header with Olivet Nazarene.
Bret Ehrlich led Judson with five hits in two games and Phil Stewart and Trent Golz took the losses for Judson.
After Judson took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh, St. Francis' David Heasley tied the game with a solo home run to left field. St. Francis then hit in the game winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning after Judson did not score in the top of the inning.
Judson battled its way to the lead in the game after St. Francis took a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning. Judson put two runs on the board in the sixth inning for a 2-1 lead. With one out, Zach Scipione flied out to left field to tie the game at one as Jake Bostwick came home. Matt McHenry followed with a single to left field as Mike Krueger gave Judson the one-run advantage.
St. Francis then tied the game in the bottom of the sixth at two before Judson regained the one-run lead in the top of the seventh. Chris Lucius singled in Manny Bobadilla, who started the inning with a double, to give Judson their third run. St. Francis then had the solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning with one out to send the game to extra innings.
In the eighth, Phil Stewart, John Banks, and Jason Egli all pitched but Stewart's lone batter that he faced was the winning run as he received the loss. Ed Draper started the game and went seven innings giving up three earned runs, no walks, with four strikeouts.
At the plate, Ehrlich went 3-of-4 while Scipione was 2-of-3. Scipione, McHenry, and Lucius all had one RBI.
In a rain-shortened five inning game, Judson was starting to make a comeback when the game was halted due to rain. With the game being five innings, it was an official game. St. Francis scored 12 runs in the first three innings with three in the first and second and six in the third.
Judson took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Ehrlich scored from first base on a Williams double. The next time Judson would score, they would be down 6-1. In the top of Ehrlich singled in Bobadilla for the second run and cut the Saint's deficit to four, 6-2. Judson then could not contain the St. Francis offense in the bottom of the inning as the Saint's scored six runs on seven hits for a 12-2 lead.
Again, Judson did not give up as they garnered five runs in the top of the fourth inning. Royce Krueger singled in the first run and then two batters later Lucius had a sacrifice fly as Krueger came home from third. Kevin Fischer followed with a double to right field scoring Bobadilla.
Judson was led by Ehrlich and McHenry as they were both 2-of-3 at the plate. Fischer, Ehrlich, Williams, Royce Krueger, and Lucius all had one RBI.
Trent Golz started the game and went two innings and gave up six runs with two being earned. Scott Newton went 0.1 innings followed by Jason Egli's 0.2 innings and Zac Phillips finished the final inning.
Judson will try for 30 wins in a season on Thursday, May 7th, at 3:30 p.m. in their final game of the season against St. Francis.
