The Madison College baseball team traveled to Peosta, IA yesterday afternoon for their second nine inning game of the season against the Kirkwood Community College Eagles and prevailed 14-7 to double up the Iowa team for their ninth consecutive victory. The WolfPack has outscored their opponents 81 to 23 during the streak as the have improved to 19-7 on the year and 3-1 in the North Central Community College Conference (N4C).
Cole Kroncke toed the slab to start the game after the Madison College offense was shutout in the first inning. Kroncke threw a scoreless first before the Eagles got on the board in the bottom of the second and the 'Pack faced a 1-0 deficit headed into the top of the third. The WolfPak bats came alive in the inning for five runs as they belted out two hits, were hit by pitches twice, and were walked three times in the frame. All five of the runs scored with two outs. With Garrett Novinski on first with two outs, Josh Rowles drove in Novinski with a double to right center and the WolfPack already knotted up the game. The next batter, Ryan Freitag walked, and Tyler Brusky continued the offensive barrage with an RBI single to center field to drive in Rowles for the 2-1 lead. James Furlano then walked and Eric DuCharme was hit by a pitch with bases loaded for another RBI and the 3-1 advantage. After an Eagle pitching change and the bases still full, Luke Maldonado walked to drive in another and Furlano scored on a wild pitch a batter later before a strike out ended the inning with the WolfPack up 5-1.
After a strong start in two innings, Kroncke began to run into trouble in the Kirkwood half of the third when the Eagles plated three runs and narrowed the gap to one run with the WolfPack still holding the 5-4 lead. Madison wouldn't settle for the small advantage and tacked on two more in the top of the fourth inning when Rowles drove in Trevor Burmeister, who had reached on a one out walk, for his second RBI off the game. After Rowles stole second, Brusky did his best to match Rowles when he drove in the speedster with a single, for his second RBI of the game.
With a 7-4 lead and two outs, Andy Stochl relieved Kroncke, and silenced the Eagles for the third out in the scoreless fourth before he surrendered a run in the fifth as Kirkwood narrowed the 'Pack advantage to 7-5. The WolfPack then used another big inning to do their best to run away with the game as they pushed across six more and were up 13-5 after six innings. Rowles stayed hot and tripled to center field to start off the inning and Freitag laced a single to right field for the RBI. Brusky made it three straight hits when he singled to right and Freitag scored on an error by the right fielder. Up 9-5 with no outs, Furlano reached first on a walk and the runners advanced on a wild pitch. After another pitching change for the Eagles, pinch hitter Jordan Chardukian struck out for the first out of the inning, but Jake Page kept the offense the rolling with a single to left center that plated pinch runner Andrew Wasmund and the 'Pack were up 10-5. Tanner Vavra struck out looking for out number two, but James Furlano advanced home on error by the pitcher for a 11-5 lead. Novinski then reached on an error and Page scored, and pinch hitter Landon Tenhagen doubled to left center to drive in Novinski before the Eagles recorded the third out of the frame with Madison up 13-5.
Stochl pitched another scoreless inning in the bottom of the sixth, the WolfPack bats were silenced in the seventh, and Kirkwood tacked on another run in the seventh to make it a 13-6 game. The WolfPack added another run in the top of the ninth when Chardukian drove in Freitag with a fielder's choice to extend the lead to 14-5. Kirkwood closed the gap by one run when they scored off of reliever Jake Peterson who replaced Stochl in the eighth inning, and the 'Pack exited Iowa with a 14-7 win to extend their streak to nine straight wins.
Stochl was credited with the win for Madison College, his second of the season, and Rowles and Brusky each had three hits and two RBI in the big win. Rowles went 3-for-5 at the plate with the two RBI and scored three times. He also tripled, doubled, and stole two bases. Brusky went 3-for-4 with a run scored to go along with his two RBI. Freitag scored three times and drove in a run while batting 2-for-5 and Wasmund scored a run off the bench and finished 2-for-2 on the day. The WolfPack accumulated 15 hits, reach base on a walk or being hit six times, and were aided by six Eagles errors on their was to the 14-7 win.
The WolfPack looks to extend their winning streak to eleven with another road doubleheader in Sugar Grove, IL on Thursday, April 14. The two game series against the Waubonsee Community College Chiefs starts at 2:30 PM.
