May 5, 2009

Box Score

Schaumburg, IL - The 2009 Dominican University baseball season drew to a close on Monday night with the Stars dropping to 18-20 to finish the season with a doubleheader loss at the hands of visiting Lakeland College. The Muskies handed the Stars a 6-4 loss in game one and then outdueled the Stars for a 1-0 win in game two.

Matthew Dehn (McHenry, IL) was tagged with the loss in game one for the Stars. The sophomore right-hander scattered nine hits over eight innings, allowing four runs, three earned, while striking out five. Dehn exited the game after the eighth and turned the game over to senior George Hickey (Chicago, IL) with the Stars trailing 4-3. In the ninth inning, Hickey and sophomore Tim Ridolphi combined to surrender two runs on one hit, two walks and one hit by pitch.

Offensively, Dominican managed nine hits in the loss, two apiece for senior Michael Albert (Chicago, IL) and Tim Dernulc (Dyer, IN).

In game two, junior lefty Anthony Davey (Wellington, OH) took the loss despite surrendering just one run on six hits and one walk while striking out a season-high ten hitters in a complete-game, nine-inning effort. The lone run of the ballgame came in the top of the sixth after Davey struck the first two hitters of the inning. After a two-out walk, a Muskies' double put runners on second and third. Lakeland's Dave Novak then singled to right field to score one run before right fielder Kevin Cahill (Chicago, IL) picked up his fifth outfield assist of the season as the runner from second tried to score.

Offensively, the Stars stranded seven runners on base, managing just four hits in the loss. One of the Stars' hits was a one-out single by junior Dominic Tardi (Downers Grove, IL) that broke the Stars' single season hits record as the 5'11" catcher/designated hitter picked up his 51st hit of the season. Tardi closed out the season as Dominican's leading hitter with a .370 batting average in 138 at-bats.

The Stars finished the season 11-11 in the Northern Athletics Conference (NAC), tied for seventh in the conference and three games out of the fourth and final spot in the 2009 NAC Baseball Tournament.