ELMHURST, Ill. - The Elmhurst University baseball team played their first true home conference game of the season, downing Carthage College 6-3 at Butterfield Park for the team's first CCIW victory of the season.

Elmhurst (9-12, 1-4 CCIW) used strong pitching from starter J.D. Knight (7.0 IP, 4 hits, 0 runs, 8 strikeouts) and a balanced effort at the plate from Trey Romay, Freddie March, Zach Kolb, and Drew Raspolich to hand the Firebirds (7-14, 2-5 CCIW) their fifth conference loss of the season.

Romay led off the scoring in the third with a two-run home run that rocketed over the fence in left-center field, giving the Bluejays a 2-0 advantage early. The bats got hot again in the sixth inning, with Kolb knocking in a pair of Bluejays with a single to double their lead, while in the seventh inning the Bluejays plated another pair thanks to an RBI double from March and a groundout from Raspolich.

Knight was dealing throughout his outing, striking out eight batters and scattering four hits to grab his first victory of the season and improve to 1-0. The Firebirds rallied in the ninth inning, scoring three runs after Zach Keplar and Romay entered the game to pitch. With the tying run on first base and the go-ahead run at the plate, Cole Bozzi entered the game and sat down two Carthage batters via popout and a strikeout to close the door on the Firebirds and pick up his first save of the season.

UP NEXT

The Bluejays continue CCIW action next Wednesday, April 12, hosting Millikin for a 6:00 p.m. CT first pitch under the lights at Butterfield Park.

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