LIVONIA, Mich. - The Madonna baseball team clinched the 2008 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference championship on Sunday with a pair of shut out wins over visiting Aquinas College at Ilitch Ballpark. MU took game one 2-0 before closing out the sweep with a 3-0 win in the night cap. With the wins the Crusaders are now 29-11 overall and 16-4 in WHAC play. The Saints fall to 14-23 overall and 6-12 in loop action.
GAME ONE
Madonna scored all of the runs it would need in the third inning as Drew Adamiec (Walled Lake, Mich.) led off with a single. Levi Cheshire (Troy, Mich.) followed two batters later with a double to move courtesy runner Mike Ganser (Lake in the Hills, Ill.) to third for Shawn Little (Canton, Mich.). The Crusader right fielder delivered a single to left that scored both Cheshire and Ganser for a 2-0 MU lead.
MU starter Eric Wendling (New Lothrop, Mich.) had allowed just three hits heading into the top of the seventh but back-to-back walks forced head coach Greg Haeger to go to his bull pen and bring in closer John McCracken (Pinckney, Mich.) to try and nail down the save.
McCracken did just that, as a pair of fielder's choices erased two Saints and McCracken took care of the final out himself, striking out pinch hitter Kennon Less for the third out and his team best seventh save of the season.
Wendling picked up his third win of the season against just one loss. Marc Sobota took the loss for AQ, falling to 0-3. Cheshire was the only Crusader with multiple hits while Little provided the RBIs with his pair.
GAME TWO
The night cap saw Madonna put up a run in the bottom of the first inning as Cheshire hit a one-out triple to the base of the wall in center and came home on a Kevin Zerbo (Farmington, Mich.) single two batters later for the 1-0 lead.
Crusader starter Richard Lindquist (Tecumseh, Ont.) worked himself out of trouble in the second, using a strike out and a fielder's choice to over come a single and an MU error to keep the game 1-0 in favor of Madonna.
After Lindquist allowed back-to-back hits to open the sixth, Haeger again went to the pen and brought in Carl McDevitt (Canton, Mich.). The senior righty used two fielder's choices - the first erases the lead runner, Less and the second erased Kevin Scholten - before Todd Peters grounded out to Pat Kenny (Utica, Mich.) at third to end the inning and keep it 1-0 MU and give McDevitt a hold.
The Madonna bats gave the pitching staff a little insurance in the bottom of the inning as Little led off with a single to left and stole second. After Kenny was given the intentional free pass, Dave Herrick (Livonia, Mich.) singled to score Little and make it 2-0. Zack McMillin (Grand Ledge, Mich.) singled home Kenny for a 3-0 MU lead heading into the seventh.
Haeger called upon McCracken for the second time on the day and the senior induced Jon Good into a ground out and struck out pinch hitter Jon Weltin and Jon Morse for the final two outs to give the Crusaders the WHAC title, their third in four seasons.
Lindquist got the win, his fourth of the season while McCracken added his eight save of the season, just one away from tying the single season record held by current assistant coach Kyle Fedorka.
The Crusaders are now off until Saturday when they host Concordia to start a four-game set with the Cards. First pitch at Ilitch Ballpark is set for 1pm.
