Site: San Diego, Calif. (Carroll B. Land Stadium)
Game One Score: No. 21 Madonna University 5, No. 2 Point Loma 2
Game Two Score: No. 21 Madonna University 6, No. 2 Point Loma 1
Records: MU 4-1; PLNU 8-2-1
Next MU event: Sunday, February 21 at Cal State San Marcos (Mission Bay HS), 1:30pm (PST)

GAME ONE BOX | GAME TWO BOX

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (MadonnaCrusaders.com) - - In what goes down as the biggest upset wins in the history of the Madonna University baseball program, the No. 21-ranked Crusaders swept a double header from No. 2-ranked Point Loma on Saturday (Feb. 20) by finals of 5-2 and 6-1 at Carroll B. Land Stadium.

Junior Tim Duffy (Carleton, Mich.) hit his first home run as a Crusader in game two while senior John Ballarin (Westland, Mich.) and freshman Jeremy Gooding(Livonia, Mich.) each picked up their first MU wins.

The second-ranked Sea Lions are coming off of a runner-up finish at the 2009 Avista NAIA World Series and were 8-0-1 coming into Saturday's games against the Crusaders who were playing just their fourth and fifth games of the season after spending the last six weeks practicing indoors.

GAME ONE
PLNU got to Ballarin in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a pair of walks and a hit batter but MU answered back in the top of the second as senior Zach Flavin (Novi, Mich.) led off with a single and then stole second. After a pair of Crusaders were retired for the first two outs of the inning, junior Matt Kay (Canton, Mich.) singled Flavin to third and sophomore Drew Adamiec (Walled Lake, Mich.) laced a single to right to score Flavin and tie the game at 1-1.

PLNU regained the lead in the bottom half of the inning and the game remained 2-1 in favor of the home side until MU squared the contest at 2-2 in the top of the fourth.

Junior Dan Harder (Brighton, Mich.) led off with a single and moved to second on a steal. Duffy then drew a walk to bring Kay to the plate. Kay moved both runners on a fly ball and Adamiec then drove in his second run of the game with a sacrifice fly to right making it 2-2.

The Crusaders broke the game open in the top of the fifth inning, plating three runs to take the lead. Sophomore Billy Hardin III (Livonia, Mich.) led off with a single and moved to third on a single by junior Shawn Little (Canton, Mich.) Fellow junior Jeff Bultinck (Sterling Heights, Mich.) gave the Crusaders their first lead of the day with a sac fly to left that plated Hardin III to make it 3-2. 

After Flavin reached on an error to move Little, Harder drew a walk to load the bases for Duffy. The Jackson CC transfer also reached on a PLNU miscue that scored Little and pinch runner Drew Fry (Madison Heights, Mich.) - who was running for Flavin - to make it 5-2 in favor of the Crusaders.

Ballarin then settled in, not allowing a Sea Lion runner to advance past second base until the bottom of the eighth. After allowing a lead off double and issuing a two-out walk, Ballarin uncorked a wild pitch that moved a runner to second but the lead runner was tagged out by Adamiec trying to score to end the inning and keep MU in front 5-2.

PLNU went down in order in the ninth as Ballarin struck out the final two hitters for the 5-2 upset.

Ballarin (1-0) went all nine, allowing five hits and two runs while striking out five. Kenny Houser took the loss for the Sea Lions. Hardin and Little both posted two hits whil Adamiec drove in a pair as MU moved to 3-1 on the year.

GAME TWO
The Crusaders sent another rookie to the mound in game two in the redshirt freshman Gooding. Gooding allowed a run in the bottom of the first, surrendering three hits and seeing PLNU take a 1-0 lead after one complete.

The game remained a one-run affair until the top of the third when MU scored twice to go on top 2-1. Freshman catcher Donny Holland (White Lake, Mich.) led off with a walk and courtesy runner Alex Charles (Farmington Hills, Mich.) moved to second on a single from fellow freshman Brad Lineberry (Canton, Mich.) to put runners at first and second.

Hardin III moved both runners up with a sacrifice bunt to bring Little to the plate. The Crusader centerfielder roped a single to center that scored Charles and Lineberry to make it 2-1 and put the Crusaders on top for good.

MU blew the game open in the fourth, scoring four times to take a commanding 6-2 lead. Harder reached on a walk to open the frame and Duffy took the second pitch he saw from Davis Koenig over the wall in left center to make it 4-2.

Kay continued the hit parade with a triple and came home two batters later when Lineberry singled up the middle to make it 5-2. Hardin then dropped down his second sacrifice in as many at-bats to move Lineberry up and the bunt paid off as Little drove in Lineberry for the sixth MU run.

Gooding kept the Sea Lions at bay, getting the first out of each inning and only got into trouble in the seventh as he issued a pair of two-out walks but his defense backed up their rookie hurler, recording the final out via a fielder's choice to complete the sweep 6-2.

Gooding threw all seven innings, striking out five while allowing just the one run. Lineberry and Little each posted two hits while Little drove in three runs and Toune drove in a pair. Koenig took the loss for PLNU.

The Crusaders close their trip to California on Sunday with a single nine-inning game against Cal State San Marcos. The game was slated to be a double header but wet weather in the San Diego area overnight forced the change at Mission Bay High School.

POST GAME QUOTES
Head Coach Greg Haeger
On the pitching performances from John Ballarin and Jeremy Gooding
"John started off a little rough as he was over throwing a little bit early. He walked five and hit a batter in the first two innings but managed to wiggle out with only giving up a couple of runs and then settled down very nicely afterwards. Jeremy was pretty amped up to start today. He gave up a run in the first inning as well by getting a couple of 0-2 pitches up in the zone and they did a good job putting the ball in play. Afterwards Jeremy threw pretty well. What he did today was get the first out of every inning and while he gave up a few hits and a few walks, getting the first out of every inning was real important for Jeremy."

On the offense through five games
"We had the offense in the first game and then the pitcher for Biola just shut us down. But today we saw two very good left handers and we put together the same kind of lineup we put out there in the second game yesterday and we kept the ball in play and came up with a bunch of two-out hits and were able to execute offensively very well."