SOUTH HOLLAND, ILL. - Just days dropping a pair of Region 4 games against a Division I opponent, the Madison College baseball team responded with a road sweep of Division I South Suburban College on Saturday. The WolfPack, ranked #11 in the latest NJCAA Division II Poll, earned a 4-0 shutout win in the opener before holding off a late Bulldogs rally for a dramatic 10-9 victory in the nightcap. The two decisions give the Pack a 25-23 lead in the all-time series.

Game #1: #11 Madison College 4, South Suburban College 0

Sophomore ace Michael Carpenter kept his scoreless innings streak intact with seven more against South Suburban College to push the total to 41-plus. He struck out 11 batters for his third game this season with ten or more as he moves into sixth on the program's single-season strikeout list with 86. He scattered a pair of hits and two walks to improve to 7-2 on the season with his seventh straight win.

After the lefthander from Hartland, Wisconsin, struck out the side in the bottom of the third, the game remained scoreless. However, with two outs in the top of the fourth, freshman Marcelino Alonso put a charge into a 1-1 pitch and sent a solo home run over the left field wall. The dinger is his second of the season and first since March 24.

The one-run advantage improved to 3-0 in the sixth as the WolfPack again went to work with two outs. Grant Ross got it started with a single to left, and after Alonso drew a walk, the tandem advanced 90 feet with a wild pitch to get into scoring position. Second year outfielder Dayton Rozinski Hicks singled on a line drive to center and both Ross and Alonso raced in to score.

The team's final run came in the seventh after back-to-back singles by Charlie Schau and Charlie Marion, an error by the SSC second baseman on a pop fly by Will Johannes allowed Schau to score from third.

Alonso was one of three players with two hits in the game, as the Reedsburg, Wisconsin, native was 2 for 2 with a walk, two runs scored, and one batted in. Schau's two hits and a walk led to a run scored, while Marion also produced two base knocks and a walk.

Rozinski-Hicks, a former Milwaukee Reagan HS athlete, led the team with two RBI as he went 1 for 3.

Game #2: #11 Madison College 10, South Suburban College 9

The day's second game provided much more offense and way more drama. Madison College (29-11) put up six runs in the top of the third on four hits, three of which went for extra bases, and two free passes. Nick Nowak got the big inning started with a one-out double, and then scored when Jake Petasek grounded a single to left. Charlie Marion then drove a triple to deep right field to plate Petasek for a 2-0 advantage. A walk and a hit by pitch loaded the bases for freshman James Duncan, and the transfer from Illinois State University slugged his first career grand slam beyond the right field fence. 



South Suburban College (28-27) cut their deficit in half in the fourth with three runs on five consecutive hits against reliever Allen Leitner. First year infielder Charlie Schau had an answer in the top of the fifth, belting a solo home run to left to make it 7-3.

An inning later, freshman shorstop Jalen Gellings pounded a single through the right side to drive in Kobe Vosberg from second to make it 8-3. After two more Bulldogs runs in the sixth closed the gap to 8-5, Madison College completed their scoring with two runs on the same wild pitch in the seven as both pinch runner Dayton Rozinski-Hicks and Payton Frehner touched home. The runs proved to be exactly what the WolfPack needed to win.

Down to their final at-bats, SSC put forth a valiant comeback effort in the bottom of the seventh. A run-scoring single off Sam Steuber made it 10-6, and was followed by a three-run homer to pull differential to 10-9. Steuber, a freshman from Muskego, Wisconsin, dug deep and despite allowing the tying run aboard, recorded a strikeout and a pop out to end the game.

The middle of the WolfPack lineup combined to go 6 for 10, led by Duncan's four runs batted in and a run scored. He now boasts three home runs on the season, as does Schau, whose two hits led to two runs scored and one batted in. Frehner finished 2 for 3 with two runs scored and one RBI. Petasek and Marion both had a hit, a run scored, and one driven in.

Sophomore Eli Hoyt (1-1) earned his first win of the season and his first since the 2022 NJCAA Division II World Series. The righthander from Waukesha, Wisconsin, struck out three, while allowing a hit and a walk in his three innings of work. Leitner was tagged for three runs on five hits and a walk. He struck out two in his lone inning before Eamon Mulhern stepped in for 1.2 innings, giving up two runs and a hit with one strikeout. After Noah Musolf struck out the final batter of the sixth inning, Steuber surrendered four runs, four hits, and a walk with one K in the seventh.

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