Site: Livonia, Mich. (Ilitch Ballpark)
Score: Madonna 9, Concordia 0
Score: Madonna 2, Concordia 0
Records: MU (29-12, 13-3 WHAC), CUAA (14-23, 5-11 WHAC)
Next MU event: Saturday, April 14 – at Davenport (Kentwood, Mich.) – 1 p.m.

LIVONIA, Mich. - - A nine-run outburst in game one and a pair of home runs in game two combined with two complete game efforts on the mound propelled the Madonna University baseball team to a series sweep of Concordia University on Saturday (April 7) at Ilitch Ballpark. MU won game one 9-0 before closing the four-game sweep with a 2-0 win.

Game One
Riding the right arm of junior Matthew Cook (Dresden, Ontario / Lambton Kent Secondary) the Crusaders scored nine times to open Saturday with a 9-0 win.

Cook (7-1) threw a complete game, striking out five without walking a batter for his seventh win of the season.

Both Cook and CUAA starter Matthew St. Kitts were keeping the opposition off of the score board until the top of the fifth when MU scored three times to take a 3-0 lead. After a lead off walk to senior catcher Drew Adamiec (Walled Lake, Mich. / Central) and a sacrifice bunt from junior second baseman Tyler Cotter(Livonia, Mich. / Churchill), junior center fielder Alex Charles singled to put runners at the corners for junior left fielder Steve Pelletier (Farmington Hills, Mich. / Harrison). Pelletier cleared the bases with a triple that gave MU a 2-0 lead. Two batters later senior right fielder Dan Harder (Brighton, Mich. / Brighton) hit a sacrifice fly that scored Pelletier for the 3-0 lead.

The Crusaders plated four runs in the top of the sixth to take a 7-0 lead. Junior first baseman Brad Lineberry (Canton, Mich. / Plymouth) singled through the right side and moved to third on a single by Adamiec – who advanced on the throw trying to cut Lineberry down at third - to put runners at second and third with one out. Cotter delivered a single up the middle to score Lineberry for a 4-0 lead. Charles followed with a RBI double to center that scored Adamiec.

After a pitching change Pelletier greeted new CUAA hurler David Lenzi with a single that scored Cotter before Charles and Pelletier pulled off the double steal to push the seventh run of the game across the plate for MU.

MU added a single run in the eighth on another RBI single by Cotter for an 8-0 lead before capping the scoring when Harder scored on a wild pitch in the top of the ninth for the 9-0 edge.

Cook got a double play to erase an error in the bottom of the ninth before getting Thomas Sperry to line out to sophomore Victor Barron (Fowlerville, Mich. / Fowlerville) to end the game.

St.Kitts (2-2) took the loss for CUAA, giving up seven runs on 13 hits.

Both Charles and Pelletier went 4-for-5 in the game while Cotter posted three hits in his four at-bats. Pelletier also added three RBIs for MU. Nate McHugh collected two hits for Concordia.

Game Two
The series finale was the closest of the four games as MU junior Josh Deeg (Lake Orion, Mich. / Lake Orion) and CUAA's Jack Sheel locked in a pitcher's duel.

The Crusaders got to Sheel for the game's only two runs in the bottom of the second as Harder and Lineberry hit back-to-back home runs to give MU a 2-0 lead. Harder's team-leading eighth homer of the season was an opposite field shot to right center while Lineberry's went over the fence in straight away center field for his third homer of the season.

MU stranded a pair of runners in the third, but from that point on neither pitcher got into trouble until Deeg ran into a two-out jam in the sixth. With two outs, CUAA posted back-to-back infield singles to put two on. Deeg then got Chandler Sidwell to go down on strikes for one of his career-high 13 strikeouts to end the threat.

Despite a one-out walk in the seventh, Deeg struck out the side to end the game Deeg (5-2) scattered four hits and issued just two walks in earning his fifth win of the season.

Five different Crusaders posted base hits in the victory while Chase Freeman posted two of the Cards' four hits in the game.

Scheel (1-4) was tagged with the loss, giving up both MU runs while striking out eight and walking two in his six innings of work.

The Crusaders now head on the road for their next eight games, starting next Saturday (April 14) with a 1 p.m. double header at Davenport.