CAROL STREAM, Ill. - St. Norbert College moved to 4-0 on the young 2021 season with a pair of impressive wins over College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin foes Elmhurst College and Wheaton College at Lee Pfund Stadium.
The Green Knights opened with a 14-2 rout of Elmhurst before claiming a hard-fought 6-5 win over Wheaton. The 4-0 start is just the third such mark in school history, joining 1998 and 2005.
St. Norbert posted crooked numbers in each of its first four innings to put Elmhurst away early, scoring two runs apiece in the first, second and fourth and a big seven-run third.
Peyton Jack roped a two-run double in the first inning, followed by RBI singles from
Jack Maastricht and
Caden Uhlenbrauck in the second for a 4-1 lead.
Adam Cootway started the third-inning uprising with a run-scoring triple, followed by an RBI
Isaac Gerhardt single.
Lucas Reynolds stroked a two-run triple, with Maastricht following with a double to bring home another run. Jack's RBI single and a
Jacob Rajkovich RBI groundout put the Green Knights ahead 11-0.
Elmhurst got a run back in the third but the Green Knights countered with two in the fourth with a run scoring on Reynolds' second triple and a Maastricht single to single. St. Norbert closed out the scoring with one run in the seventh inning when Maastricht scored on a wild pitch.
St. Norbert banged out 17 hits against five Bluejays pitchers. Cootway finished 3-for-3 with three runs scored and was a home run shy of hitting for the cycle. Maastricht was 4-for-5 with two doubles, two runs scored and three runs batted in. Reynolds was 3-for-4 with four runs scored, two triples and three runs batted in. Uhlenbrauck was 3-for-5 with two runs scored, while Jack was 2-for-5 with three RBIs.
Tommy Maher worked the first five innings for his second win of the season in as many starts, allowing five hits with three walks and nine strikeouts.
Nick Brauer spun a pair of scoreless innings to close out the victory.
Against Wheaton, St. Norbert jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on RBI singles from Uhlenbrauck and Cootway before leaving the bases loaded. The Thunder countered with two runs in the third and two more runs in the fifth for a 4-2 edge.
The Green Knights responded with a three-run sixth inning.
Nick Volz's two-out infield single drove in Rajkovich, and Reynolds followed with a two-run double to give St. Norbert a 5-4 lead. Neither team would score again until St. Norbert gained a valuable insurance run in the ninth on Jack's two-out single. Wheaton would get a two-out single to cut the deficit to one run but the potential tying run was thrown out at third base on the play to end the game.
St. Norbert finished with nine hits, with Reynolds and Uhlenbrauck getting two apiece.
Sam Fonder earned the win with a stellar long-relief effort, allowing just one run in 4 2/3 innings pitched. Fonder scattered six hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
Mason Sefcik started, allowing four runs in 4 1/3 innings with one walk and two strikeouts.
