Purdue Calumet Splits With St. Xavier to Open CCAC Play, Peregrines Stand 8-1

PUC-PeregrinsThe Purdue University Calumet baseball team extended its win streak to eight games before dropping its first game of the season in the second half of Tuesday’s league doubleheader at St. Xavier University.

The Peregrines (8-1, 1-1 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference) came from behind to win Game 1, 5-2, before falling in Game 2 to the Cougars (3-10, 1-4), 8-4.

Purdue Calumet returns to action Saturday for the Peregrines’ home opener at Dowling Park. Purdue Calumet will take on CCAC foe Holy Cross in a doubleheader beginning at noon (CT).

Game 1: Purdue Calumet 5, St. Xavier 2
St. Xavier jumped on the scoreboard first, notching one run in each of the first two innings. Bryan Polak’s RBI groundout scored the game’s first run in the first, followed by the Cougars’ capitalizing on a Peregrine miscue to give them the early 2-0 lead heading in to the third frame.

The Black and Gold would get a run back in the top half of the third, when junior Cody Dykema (Schererville, Ind./Lake Central) plated senior Micah Rooke (Robertsdale, Ind./Clark) on an RBI single to right field to get bring the Peregrines within one run.

Purdue Calumet would then take the lead in the top of the fourth, thanks to RBI singles by Rooke and senior John Livingston (Highland, Ind./Highland) to put the Peregrines up, 3-2.

In the fifth, freshman Nazario Trejo (San Jose, Calif./Piedmont Hills) would score on a Cougar error and then added an RBI single in the seventh frame to add more insurance runs for the Black and Gold, who secured its eight straight victory.

Junior Phil Madvek (Hobart, Ind./Hobart) continued his dominance on the mound with a complete game for the Peregrines, giving up just one earned run and striking out seven in seven innings to improve his record to 3-0.

Game 2: St. Xavier 8, Purdue Calumet 4
After three scoreless innings by both teams, St. Xavier broke open the scoreboard in the bottom half of the fourth with a seven-run frame.

The Cougars rattled off six hits with nobody out to start off the inning to bust open their lead to 6-0. A sacrifice fly by Bryan Villanova increased their advantage to 7-0, making it an uphill battle for the Peregrines.

Purdue Calumet would get one run in the sixth frame on a Dykema RBI single to center and three more in the seventh to cut their deficit to just three, 7-4, but that’s all the runs the Peregrines would muster for the contest. In the seventh, Trejo started the Peregrines’ scoring with an RBI single followed by a Cole Garcia (Anaheim Hills, Calif./Canyon) RBI on a fielders’ choice. Junior Eric Sickles (Benicia, Calf./Benicia) added a RBI single to round out the Peregrines’ scoring.

The Cougars would plate one more in the bottom half of the seventh before closing out the game with two scoreless innings to hand the Black and Gold their first loss of the season.

Drey Devereaux led the Cougars with three RBI’s while Bryan Polak went 3-for-4 with one RBI to lead St. Xavier in the victory.

Sickles led Purdue Calumet with a 2-for-4 performance with an RBI, while Trejo, Garcia and Dykema each recorded an RBI in the setback.