GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Madonna baseball put on a show under the lights in the nightcap of day one at the WHAC Tournament, topping Northwestern Ohio by a 5-1 final tally thanks to back-to-back home runs in the fourth inning off the bats of Jimmy Whiteand Levi Larmour. The win extends the Crusaders (39-14) winning streak to 22 games and places the nation's 20th ranked team in the semifinal round of the conference tournament against Indiana Tech.
The semifinal game with Indiana Tech is slated to be played at 11 a.m. Tuesday (May 10) at Cornerstone with live video coverage on portal.stretchinternet.com/corner/ with Jeremy Otto and Brendan Johnson on the call.
WHAC Newcomer of the Year and First Team All-Conference selection Johno Rodriguez(Sterling Heights, Mich./Indian Hills CC) got the start in game two of the conference tournament and continued his strong junior season with a dominant showing against Northwestern Ohio. The junior worked seven-plus innings to scatter only three Northwestern Ohio (40-14) hits while striking out five batters. A run came across with Rodriguez on the mound and was deemed unearned as the junior pitcher lowered his season ERA with a low 1.77 through 12 starts.
Rodriguez handed the ball off to Patrick Wierimaa (Redford, Mich./Union High School) who recorded an out before closer Bobby St. Pierre (Windsor, Ontario/Crowder CC) came on for the five-out save to secure the Crusaders victory. St. Pierre inherited a one out, bases loaded situation in the eighth before allowing MU to escape the frame behind back-to-back punch outs. The junior went back to the mound in the ninth to record two more strikeouts to earn his 13th save of the year and eliminate Northwestern Ohio in the process.
Northwestern Ohio jumped on top first in the nightcap, scoring a run in the top of the fourth inning after a Crusader miscue allowed a run to cross the plate. Backing up third base, Rodriguez made a great play to get the trailing runner at the plate to limit Northwester Ohio's damage in the inning as MU ended the top half of the fourth down, 1-0.
MU would heat up in the home half of the fourth, scoring a total of four runs in the frame as WHAC First Team member John Lauro (Rochester Hills, Mich./UD-Jesuit High School) tied the game at 1-1 with a sac fly RBI to score Ryan Lambrecht (Lake Orion, Mich./Lake Orion High School) who started the inning off with a single up the middle. Jalen Thomas (Southfield, Mich./Lathrup High School) moved Lambrecht to third to setup the Lauro RBI on a double to left.
Later in the inning, Jimmy White (Cincinnati, Ohio/Sinclair CC) battled to work the count full before sending his second home run of the season over the opposite field wall to give the Crusaders their first lead of the ball game at 3-1. The two-run, go-ahead home run was White's 15th extra-base hit of the season, his first campaign in a Madonna uniform.
White's shot was followed one batter later by Levi Larmour (Oakville, Ontario/Mesa CC) who abruptly sent a well-struck ball over the left field wall for his second home run of the day, giving MU a 4-1 lead in the process as the senior trotted home. White and Larmour's back-to-back home runs were the difference as Northwestern Ohio would threaten late but never move another run across the plate in the Crusaders' 5-1 conference tournament victory.
