Sandburg Baseball Takes 3 of 4 vs. DuPage, Kankakee
Aaron Frey
Monday, March 20, 2017 9:25 AM
Athletics
Galesburg, IL
The Carl Sandburg College baseball team continued its hot start to the season by winning three of four contests over the weekend. The Chargers had their five-game win streak snapped in a 6-5 loss to DuPage on Saturday at home before bouncing back with at 8-3 victories and picking up a sweep at Kankakee on Sunday by scores of 8-2 and 10-8
Levi Brening (Coon Rapids, Minn./DuQuoin) and Shane Coleman (Abingdon, Ill./Abingdon-Avon) led Sandburg (9-5) in Sunday’s Game 1 victory of Kankakee. Coleman went 4 for 4 with three RBIs while Brening had a pair of hits, scored three times, drove in a run and tossed six strong innings for his third straight victory.
The Chargers jumped to a 6-1 lead following Jordan Chandler’s (Erie, Ill./Erie) three-run triple in the third. Brening allowed a pair of runs on seven hits while striking out a pair.
Sandburg got two RBIs apiece from Chandler, Payton Hartbank (Mattoon, Ill./Mattoon) and Marty Mennenga (Rantoul, Ill./Paxton-Buckley-Loda) in Game 2. The Chargers plated five runs in the first and held on after taking a 9-1 lead in the third.
Leadoff man Angel Figueroa (East Chicago, Ind./Bishop Noll) had three hits and scored twice, and Brad Demmin (Brimfield, Ill./Brimfield) earned the victory in relief after striking out three in two innings. Austin Fancher (Moline, Ill./Moline) got the save when he escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh.
DuPage broke a 4-4 tie in the Chargers’ home opener Saturday with a two-run homer in the fifth. Catcher Marty Mennenga went 2 for 4 with a run and RBI for the Chargers in the loss.
Chandler’s first-inning grand slam capped a five-run first inning for Sandburg in Game 2. Brening added a two-run blast in the second to give the Chargers a 7-2 lead. Left-hander Alec Drake (Macomb, Ill./Macomb) allowed three runs on five hits over 5 2/3 innings to improve to 3-1 on the season.
The Chargers will host Spoon River in a nine-inning game at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the William “Bill” Hungate Baseball/Softball Complex.
SATURDAY
Game 1
DuPage 6, Sandburg 5
DuPage 300 120 0 — 6 8 5
Sandburg 001 300 1 — 5 6 2
L-Trouten (5 IP, 6 K, 3 BB)
Game 2
Sandburg 8, DuPage 3
DuPage 111 000 0 — 3 5 2
Sandburg 520 010 x — 8 6 2
W-Drake (5.2 IP, 2 K, 6 BB)
SUNDAY
Game 1
Sandburg 8, Kankakee 2
Sandburg 204 010 1 — 8 10 0
Kankakee 100 001 0 — 2 7 0
W-Brening (6 IP, 2 K, 4 BB)
Game 2
Sandburg 10, Kankakee 8
Sandburg 522 001 0 — 10 11 1
Kankakee 014 102 0 — 8 13 2
W-Demming (5th, 2 IP, 3 K, 0 BB)
Sv-Fancher (7th, 1 IP, 1 K, 1 BB)
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