ONU CLINCHES THE CCAC REGULAR-SEASON TITLE FOLLOWING A 1-0 WIN OVER SAU
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
St. Ambrose | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
|
Olivet Nazarene | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 1 | 5 | 3 |
BOURBONNAIS, Ill. – The Olivet Nazarene University baseball team clinched the 2022 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference regular-season title after defeating the Fighting Bees of St. Ambrose 1-0 Wednesday afternoon. The Tigers extended their NAIA-leading win streak to 24 games after Donovan Yelle threw out a runner at Homeplate to preserve the shutout and drove in the game's only run.
Aren Gustafson for ONU and Nick Vollmert for SAU put on a show for the first six innings of the contest. The pitchers duel kept both sides silent offensively with Gustafson facing 27 batters allowing only three hits and one walk. The lefty struck out three batters with no runs to lower his ERA to 2.92 on the year.
Yelle had the play of the game to keep St. Ambrose off the scoreboard by throwing a runner out at home. With a SAU runner at second, a ball was driven into center field. The Maple Valley, Wash. native was quick to field it on the first hop, took two steps, and fired a ball to Tyler Wheeler at home plate. Wheeler caught the ball off one hop and denied the baserunner access to Homeplate.
The breakthrough came in the bottom of the seventh inning as Jack Springer led off with a single to center field. Rod Lucas entered the game to pinch run at first base. Garret Mooney reached base via being hit by a pitch to put an ONU runner in scoring position. Yelle came through at the next at bat with an RBI single to right field scoring Lucas. Tigers led 1-0.
Jonathan Simpson entered the ballgame to close out the victory for the eighth and ninth innings. Simpson faced eight batters striking out three. The Tampa, Fla. native retired the last three batters of the game to earn his fourth save of the campaign.
GAME VITALS
St. Ambrose (29-9, 20-5 CCAC) | Olivet Nazarene (31-14, 24-2 CCAC)
WHAT'S NEXT
The Tigers conclude the regular season with a three-game series against Saint Xavier. The matchup will kick off with a road game at the Cougars Friday afternoon starting at 3 p.m. CST. The regular season will conclude Saturday with a home doubleheader with first pitches slated for 12 p.m. and 3 p.m. CST. Please follow ONUTigers.com to follow along.
--ONU—
*Contact: Patrick Kaindl, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, pkaindl@olivet.edu