CHICAGO, Ill. – The Elmhurst baseball team banged out 18 hits while blowing out North Park 14-6 in the first game of a three-game series.
 
Elmhurst (20-18, 8-11 CCIW) scored early and often, plating 10 runs over the first five innings while racing out to a seven-run cushion. The Bluejays broke a scoreless tie in the top of the second with four runs. A.J. Compton started the scoring with an RBI single. Elmhurst took advantage of a North Park error to tack on two runs and a run-scoring groundout from James Wick gave Elmhurst a 4-0 lead.
 
North Park (14-24, 5-14 CCIW) got a run back in the bottom of the second, but the Bluejays scored three times in the third, taking advantage of a pair of errors on the Vikings. A bases loaded groundout from Compton gave Elmhurst a 5-1 lead.  The second error of the inning against North Park allowed a pair of runs to score and gave the Bluejays a six-run cushion.
 
The Vikings scored twice in the bottom of the third to close to within four runs, but run-scoring singled from Ben Havel and Austin MacMillan in the fourth inning gave Elmhurst a 9-3 lead. Matt Wilson cracked a solo home run in the fifth to extend Elmhurst's lead to seven. North Park plated two runs in the sixth to cut the deficit down to five, but Elmhurst answered back with three runs in the seventh and a run in the ninth to pull away for the 14-6 victory.
 
Brandon Kressner led the Elmhurst hit parade, finishing 4-for-5 at the plate with a team-leading three-runs scored. MacMillan and Compton finished with three hits apiece while also scoring two runs apiece and driving in two each. Havel and Reagan McReynolds added two hits apiece in the victory.
 
Mike Rostine improved to 6-1 on the season on the mound for the Bluejays. Rostine scattered 11 hits and six runs in seven innings of work. He walked two and struck out five. Daryl Rivera pitched two scoreless innings of relief for the Bluejays.
 
Elmhurst wraps up its 2016 season by hosting North Park in a doubleheader tomorrow, May 7, at Noon.