[Baseball] Bees off to perfect start; sweep another four-game set

After sweeping a four-game set against UT Southern last weekend, the Fighting Bees brought home another four-game sweep this weekend.

This time it was over the Bendectine Ravens (4-8) in Atchison, Kansas.

The highlight game of the weekend was the finale. St. Ambrose built an early four-run lead thanks to a Brendan Butler 2-RBI double in the bottom of the third. However, Benedictine was able to rally back with two separate three-run innings to take a one-run lead into the final frame.

With one out and no one on, Bryce Vincent took a first-pitch fastball deep to tie the game. On the very next pitch, Cooper Huckabone blasted one to deep center to retake the lead. In the bottom of the seventh, Parker Ruth struck out the side to nail down the 7-6 win and complete the weekend sweep.

Monday's morning game saw the Bees in an early hole, surrendering the first five runs of the game to a pair of deep flies from the Ravens. The Fighting Bees would go on to score 14-straight runs, with eight of those runs coming in the top of the fourth. The eight-spot fourth inning was capped off by a 2-RBI double from Mike Snow and an RBI single from Adrian Zietara; six Bees tallied in RBI in the frame.

Nick Hernandez came in for relief, pitching 3 1/3 shutout innings with a pair of strikeouts en route to the 14-5 win.

The first game of Sunday's doubleheader saw the Bees putting up 14 runs as well. This time St. Ambrose led from start to finish, with Zietara launching a homerun in the top of the first to get things started. Zietara would later send another over the wall in the sixth inning to mark a two-homerun game. Chris McFaralnad hit a game-high five RBIs, cracking a 2-RBI single in the third and a 3-RBI double in the seventh.

Nick Vollmert got the start in the Sunday's first game, going 4 1/3 and twirling eight strikeouts. The Bees would coast to a 14-8 victory.

The Bees had to battle back in Sunday's second game, finding themselves in a 3-1 hole after four. The Bees found their groove in the sixth, with Huckabone getting things started with an RBI single to cut the lead to one. Shawn Rigsby then sent a sacrifice fly to center field bring Vincent across to tie the game at 3-3. Kyel Alexander then laid down a sac bunt to bring Huckabone across to give the Bees their first lead of the game.

Max Rumpf would add some insurance with an RBI single to center. St. Ambrose would score seven runs in the final two frames to pick up the 8-4 win. Michael Dudek went six innings as the starter, tossing six K's along the way.

The second consecutive four-game sweep improves the Fighting Bees record to 8-0. St. Ambrose will look to keep things rolling this coming weekend with a four-game set at Lawrence Tech in Kokomo, Ind.