HOWELL, Mich. -- The Madonna University baseball team would travel to Cleary University to face off against the Cougars on Saturday afternoon. In game one the Crusaders would lose 5-6 and in game two would win 12-11.   

Game 1:

Entering game one the Crusaders would look to get back in the win column and break the two game losing streak to Cleary stretching into last year. The Crusaders would start the scoring in game one off an RBI single from Anthony Sharkas followed by a Pablo Rebollar sacrifice fly that would score Sharkas to take the 2-0 lead after one. The Cougars would respond with one in the bottom of the third to make it a 2-1 game. The Crusaders would then pick up another run in the top of the fourth off an Avain Rivera solo homerun to take a 3-1 lead going into the bottom of the fourth. The Cougars offense would find their stride in the bottom of the fourth, picking up four runs to take a 5-3 lead. The Crusaders would not give up just yet as they would pick up two runs off a Sharkas RBI triple and another Rebollar sac fly to tie the game up at five heading into the bottom of the fifth. The Cougars would then score what would be the game winning run in the bottom of the fifth to hand the Crusaders a 6-5 loss. 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

 

• Sharkas would go 3-4 with a triple, two RBI's, and two runs scored.
• Rivera would go 3-3 with a homerun, his fourth of the year.
• Kyle Revere would go 2-4 with a double and two runs scored.

Game 2:

In game two, the back and forth battle between the Crusaders as game two would start almost the same as game one but instead the Cougars would strike first taking a 1-0 lead after the first inning. The Crusaders would answer right back in the top of the 2nd with four runs scored off of doubles from Luke Spicer and Revere followed by Sharkas reaching on an error to take a 4-1 lead. Then the Cougars would respond again putting up five runs in the bottom of the 2nd to take back the lead at 6-4. Cleary would then pick up two more runs in the bottom of the 3rd to take a 8-4 lead.  Again the Crusaders would not give in as they would pick up two runs in the top of the 4th off a Sharkas single and a Rebollar single to get back two runs making it 8-6 after four innings. Then in the 6th the Crusaders would be on the attack again off a Luke Spicer sacrifice groundout and a Rebollar double down the left field line to tie the game up at 8-8. Then in the eighth inning things would get interesting. Rivera would hit a huge three run homer along with Cal Fournier reaching by error to give the Crusaders a four run lead heading into the bottom of the eighth. The Cougars would then answer with three runs and would have guys on second and third with two outs but the Cougars were unable to pick up the tying run and the Crusaders would walk away with the 12-11 victory. 
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
 

• Revere would go 3-5 with two doubles and two RBI's.
• Sharkas would go 2-4 with a double and an RBI.
• Rebollar would go 2-6 with a double and two RBI's.

UP NEXT:
Madonna will be back in action Sunday, April 21st to face off again against Cleary University in Howell, Mich. First pitch is set for 1:00 PM.


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