Purdue Calumet 4-0 After Second Straight Doubleheader Sweep, Beats William Penn

PUC-PeregrinsThe Purdue University Calumet baseball team swept its second-straight two-game series on Monday afternoon, as the Peregrines picked up a pair of one run victories over William Penn University (Iowa) in Winter Haven, Fla.

Purdue Calumet (4-0) will be back in action tomorrow afternoon, as the Peregrines take on Aquinas College (Mich.) in a single game at 3:30 p.m. in Winter Haven.

Game One – Purdue Calumet 6, William Penn 5 After scoreless innings started the game off for both teams, William Penn tacked on the first scores of the game in the bottom of the third inning, giving the Statesmen the early 2-0 lead. William Penn would capitalize on a few Peregrine miscues, adding a pair of runs, making it 4-0 heading in to the fifth.

The Statesmen would score one more run in the fifth inning, before the Peregrines late game heroics took effect.

Senior Anthony Colosimo (Lake Forest, Ill./Loyola Academy) would score on a double by sophomore CJ Gear (Valparaiso, Ind./Valparaiso) to give Purdue Calumet its first run of the game in the sixth inning, before heading in to the seventh still down, 5-1.

In the seventh, Purdue Calumet was down to its final three outs, until sophomore Tom Gaede (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake South) and classmate Cole Garcia (Anaheim, Calif./Canyon) led off the top half of the seventh with singles, followed by a sacrifice bunt by freshman Nazario Trejo (San Jose, Calif./Piedmont Hills) ended in a Statesmen error leaving everyone safe.

Senior Micah Rooke (Robertsdale, Ind./Clark) connected on a two-RBI double to score a pair of Peregrine base runners, cutting the lead to 5-3 with zero outs.

Cody Dykema (Schererville, Ind./Lake Central) would reach on a walk, followed by an infield single by Colosimo to put the Black and Gold within one run, 5-4.

Gear would keep the rally alive, coming up with a clutch two-RBI single to plate Dykema and Rooke, giving the Peregrines their first lead of the game, 6-5. That’s all they needed after sophomore right-hander Aurelio Casares (Hammond, Ind./Morton) shut down the Statesmen in the bottom half of the seventh to seal the Peregrines comeback victory.

Game Two – Purdue Calumet 5, William Penn 4 Much like the first game, William Penn took control in the early innings, as a string of hits to start the game off gave the Statesmen an early 1-0 lead.

Micah Rooke would score in the bottom half of the first to tie the game, 1-1, before William Penn regained the lead.

The Peregrines had some costly errors in the second inning, as a pair of miscues set up a two-run inning for the Statesmen, who increased their lead to 3-1. William Penn would rack up one more run in the top half of the third inning, before the Peregrines got that run back after Nazario Trejo notched a triple, and later scored thanks to a Cody Dykema single.

John Cristo (Munster, Ind./Munster), Luke Schmidt (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake South) and Cole Garcia would each get on base to start off the fourth inning rally for the Black and gold, as Trejo came up with another clutch hit, roping a double to put the Peregrines ahead, 5-4.

That would be all the scoring done in the game, as back-to-back comeback victories for the Peregrines were the solutions to the Black and Gold’s success this afternoon.

Freshman Willie Bennett (Santee, Calif./West Hills) started his first collegiate game for the Black and Gold going five strong innings and picking up his first win as a Peregrine.

Strong pitching down the stretch by Matt Sandoval (Highland, Ind./Bishop Noll) and Justin Stowe (Highland, Ind./Hammond Baptist), who closed out the game for Purdue Calumet, helped secure the fourth consecutive win for the Peregrines.