In their first doubleheader of Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) play, the John Carroll University baseball team traveled to Bexley, Ohio on Saturday to take on the Capital Crusaders. Through yet another day of strong offense and pitching, the Blue Streaks swept Capital 11-1 and 5-4. 

Today's wins mark the first time since 2016 that John Carroll has been able to take both wins away from the Crusaders.

Game One

Looking to get off to a good start, the Blue Streaks gave the ball to freshman hurler Mitchell Midea.  Midea was locked in from the start, surrendering only one run in six innings pitched. After Midea came out, Cam Mayle and Joe Smith combined to pitch the next three innings, allowing no runs on just one hit.

It took the high powered Blue Streak offense a little while to wake up, scoring just one run through the first four innings, but from innings six through nine, they hung 10 runs on the Crusaders.

Inning five saw Dominic Mittiga, the OAC leader in RBIs, doubled home Patrick Keohane and Sam Heaton to make the score 3-0.  After the Blue Streaks and Crusaders traded runs, the Blue Streaks came to bat in the seventh with a 4-1 lead.

Aaron Zawadzki doubled home Mittiga and Heaton, making the score 6-1.  The next batter, Joe Charpentier, would trade places with Zawadzki on second, pushing the score 7-1.

The Blue Streaks would manufacture four more runs on the day to bring the final tally of game one to a score of 11-1. Two of those runs resulted from sacrifice flies from Dustin Ferguson and Justin Hanley, but Ferguson and Derek Penman would also have RBI hits in the ninth to close out the scoring.    

Midea moves to 3-1 on the year, while Christian Cassaro had a hat trick of doubles (3-5) to lead the Blue Streak offense.

"The offense helps our pitchers to be confident" said pitching coach Tyler McCormick. "Our pitchers know that they don't have to be perfect, they just have to compete in the strike zone."

Game Two

Looking for their fourth win in a row since their loss last Saturday to Transylvania, John Carroll sent the team leader with wins, Andrew Steele, to the mound.

Steele has heard no such thing of a sophomore slump this year as he came into today with a 3-0 record and a 1.29 ERA.  The same dominant Steele showed up today in game two.

In his 6.2 innings pitched, Steele allowed just two runs on six hits, giving his offense a chance to build up a lead.

The Blue Streaks were able to get off to a 1-0 lead after the first inning when Keohane tagged third to run home on a Zawadzki sacrifice fly.

The third inning saw Zawadzki single home Mittiga and Heaton to make the score 3-1.  After going scoreless in the fourth, the Blue Streaks were able to manufacture their final two runs of the game in the fifth inning off of just one hit to make the score 5-1.

Steele allowed one run in the seventh inning, and with Capital threatening, Duncan Cappar was brought in to shut down the rally.  He did just that. The sophomore didn't allow a baserunner through his 1.1 innings of work, ensuring that the Blue Streaks would head into the ninth with a 5-1 lead.

After the offense didn't muster any runs in the top of the ninth, senior Nathaniel Wenson was called on to get the save.  Wenson added a little excitement to the game by allowing two runs to score and loading the bases with just one out in the inning. However, Wenson regained his composure and got the next batter to fly out and struck the last batter out to end the game and give the Blue Streaks a 5-4 gutsy win.

Zawadzki lead the offensive attack in game two, finishing 2-3 and driving in three runs, while Heaton scored two runs while drawing three walks. Mittiga also went 2-5, scoring one run.  

On the pitching side, Steele moved to 4-0 on the year in addition to Wenson recording his first save of the year.

"Anytime you can take two on the road it's huge," said assistant coach Ryan Nordquist. "We've got a group of guys who embrace competition and understand there's more than one way to win a ballgame."

After winning both games today, the Blue Streaks move to 13-4 on the year.  John Carroll sits on top of the OAC standings at 2-0 with Otterbein, Wilmington, and Heidelberg. However, Blue Streaks were the only team in the conference to win on the road today.  

The Blue Streaks will be back in action on Wednesday, March 27, when they travel to Granville, Ohio to take on Denison at 4 p.m.