ELMHURST, Ill. - The Elmhurst University baseball team completed the season sweep of Illinois Wesleyan Wednesday afternoon, taking down the Titans 10-5 at Butterfield Park.

Elmhurst (10-26, 4-13 CCIW) took to an early deficit but fought back multiple times to tie or keep the game close. The Titans (22-13, 11-6 CCIW) took a 5-2 lead heading to the bottom of the seventh, where the Bluejays would score five runs on five hits, including a go-ahead three-run home run off the bat of Freddie March and three more insurance runs in the eighth sealed the Elmhurst victory and a season sweep of the Titans.

March led the Jays with three RBI's in the game, while Ryan Thrawl and Zach Kolb connected on two RBI's each. On the mound, Logan Leach had a strong start of six innings but did not factor in to the decision, as Joseph Ingratta picked up his fifth win of the season thanks to three innings pitched, giving up just two hits and one run while adding three strikeouts.

The Titans got on the board early in the second, extending their lead to two in the fourth before an RBI groundout from Rock Smith cut the deficit in half in the Bluejays' side of the fourth inning. A Thrawl sacrifice fly knotted the game at two in the fifth, but Illinois Wesleyan would respond with two more runs in the sixth to again take a 4-2 lead.

Illinois Wesleyan plated another run in the top of the seventh to make it a 5-2 game, but that's when the Bluejays would heat up offensively. Back-to-back singles from Carson Gnade and Javier Cervantes kicked off the bottom of the seventh, and a groundout would put them on second and third with one out. Again, back-to-back RBI singles from Kolb and Thrawl would bring the Bluejays within one, where March would step to the plate and knock a three-run shot out of the ballpark to give Elmhurst a 7-5 lead. 

Elmhurst would add another three runs in the bottom of the eighth on a balk that scored Marty Fraga and an RBI fielders choice and throwing error, making it 10-5. Ingratta would shut the door on the Titans in the ninth to secure the league victory for the Bluejays.

UP NEXT

Elmhurst wraps up the 2024 season with a three-game set against North Central this weekend, beginning on the road on Friday, May 3 in Naperville, Ill. for a 3:00 p.m. first pitch. 

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