Box Scores:  Game 1 vs. Mount Union  /  Game 2 vs. Mount Union

Revenge proved sweet on Saturday, as the John Carroll baseball team swept the Mount Union Purple Raiders, 15-6 and 12-9, to secure the program's first Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament berth since 2004.

Last year, it was Mount Union sweeping John Carroll on the second to last weekend that started a downward spiral for the Blue Streaks.

On Saturday at 23rd Street Field in Alliance, Ohio, it was John Carroll turning the tables on the Purple Raiders. With the name of the game being offense, the Blue Streaks crossed home plate 27 times in engineering a sweep of the Purple Raiders

In the opener, JCU trailed briefly, 1-0, but put two runs on the board in the second on a Bryan Robinett (Loveland, OH, Cincinnati Moeller) home run, then erupted for nine in the third. Matthew Pangallo (Crystal Lake, IL, Prairie Ridge) and Mike Carbo (Coral Springs, FL, J.P. Taravella) both had a two run single, and Tom Hickey (Orland Park, IL, Brother Rice) had a bases loaded three-run double to highlight the uprising.

From that point on, every time Mount Union threatened to make it interesting, John Carroll would respond. The Purple Raiders cut the deficit to 11-4 in the bottom of the fourth, only to have John Hastings (Pittsburgh, PA, Fox Chapel) homer and Pangallo drive in another run to push the lead back to nine runs.

Mount again cut the lead to 13-6 in the fifth, only to have Brian Benander (Richmond Heights, OH, Cleveland St. Ignatius) power a two-run homer down the left field line in the top of the sixth for the final runs.

Paul O'Donnell allowed 13 hits in six innings, but his key was not walking a single batter while striking out five. He improved to 6-1 on the year.

The way game two started out, it looked as if John Carroll would leave Alliance with a split. The Purple raiders chased Blue Streak starter Tom Schaberl (Richmond Heights, OH, Cleveland St. Ignatius) with eight runs on 11 hits in the first two-and-at-third innings. When JCU made a pitching change to Michael Eden (Aurora, OH, Aurora), the vistors were down 8-2.

The comeback began in the fourth, when Russell Toth (Lorain, OH, Admiral King) hit a solo home run to cut the Mount lead to 8-3. After two more runs in the fifth pulled John Carroll to within four runs at 9-5, the stage was set for yet another big inning for the Streaks.

In the top of the sixth, the Streaks were able to plate a run, but were faced with two outs when Tim O'Brien and Benander delivered back-to-back RBI singles, and then Hickey drove in two with a double to give JCU its first lead at 10-9. After a Toth walk, Robinett doubled home the 11th Blue Streak run.

From there, it would be Eden and Adam Jenkins (Amherst, NY, Amherst Central) shutting down the Mount Union offense, allowing four hits and no runs over the final four innings.

Eden got the win to improve to 3-0, and Jenkins picked up his third save.

John Carroll is now 23-8 overall and 11-5 in the OAC. The Streaks are tied for second with Marietta, and both are two games in back of Heidelberg. The Blue Streaks would need to sweep Heidelberg on Saturday, May 2, to claim a share of its first OAC regular season championship.