Baseball team moves into second place in OAC

Outfielder Ryan Lewis provides the spark at the top of the Blue Streak lineup. Lewis used his speed to steal three bases and score six runs against Muskingum.

The John Carroll University baseball team won four out of its last six games to pull into a three-way tie for second place in the Ohio Athletic Conference.  

The Blue Streaks currently stand at 8-4 and are tied with Marietta College and Heidelberg College, and are one game back of conference leader Mount Union College.

 JCU hosted Muskingum College in a doubleheader this past Saturday and handled the Muskies in an efficient manner.  

While struggling to muster up any sort of high-powered offense, the Blue Streaks used their speed.

Sophomore Bryan Robinett’s sacrifice fly broke the 4-4 tie and junior Matthew Pangallo tacked on an RBI single to make it a 6-4 game heading into the fifth inning.  

After Muskingum cut the deficit in half in the top of the fifth inning, senior Marty Smith relieved senior  starting pitcher Brandon Kurtz.

Smith took the mound with the tying and go-ahead runs on base and worked his way out of the jam, ending the Muskies threat. He would work the final two innings, giving up just one hit to preserve the victory. 

Kurtz was the winning pitcher  in game one, earning his second win of the season by working four and two-thirds innings.

Junior Ryan Lewis led the offense in game one, going 3-4 from the plate and tallying three runs.

In the second game, senior Matt Fort would take the hill. Fort dominated the Muskie batters, holding them scoreless through five innings.

Muskingum scored two runs off Fort in the sixth inning, ending his streak of 21 scoreless innings.  He then started a new streak by  shutting out Muskingum in the seventh and eighth innings before sophomore Craig Willert came on to close the door and give JCU the 11-2 win. Fort improved to 5-0, allowing six hits while striking out seven.

The offense again was led by Lewis who went 4-4 and crossed the plate three times.  

Lewis went a combined 7-8 in the two games, helping him earn OAC “Hitter of the Week” honors for the second time this season.  

On Monday, JCU traveled to frigid Ada, Ohio for a doubleheader with Ohio Northern University.  

Junior Paul O’Donnell gave a steady effort on the mound, going five innings and holding ONU to four runs with three of them being earned.  

Chilly temperatures and Polar Bears pitcher Mark Sankovich were enough to keep the Blue Streak offense cold all afternoon.

Sankovich went the distance and struck out seven while holding JCU to two runs.  

JCU got their only runs of the game on back-to-back RBI singles by junior Chris Cairo and sophomore Mike Carbo. Runs by ONU in the third and sixth would be enough to defeat JCU as the Polar Bears won 4-2.     

JCU would respond in the second game.  Freshman Tony Evanko improved to 5-0 on the season, tying Fort for the best record in the OAC.  Evanko went five innings and gave up just one hit while striking out five and holding the Polar Bears scoreless.  

The Blue Streaks used the seventh inning to break open a 3-0 game into an 8-0 route. JCU would tack on two more runs for a final score of 10-3.

Lewis and Carbo led the offense by driving in two runs each.  

On Tuesday, JCU split a doubleheader with Otterbein College. The Blue Streaks won game one by a score of 8-7 before dropping the night cap 4-3.