MACOMB, Ill. - A chance at a series clinching victory was staring at the Leathernecks on Sunday afternoon. A strong pitching performance from Alexander Zarate (1-3) was wasted as Western was only able to muster one run and dropped the series finale, 5-1.
"The guys went out and really battled and competed the entire weekend," said head coach Mike Villano. "We had our situations where we could have won a couple more games and even in this game, the pitching could have been handled better."
Austin Cowen singled to left field to start the second inning. Bryan Jordan was hit by a pitch, one of the nine on the weekend, to reach. Danny Marcuzzo singled through the right side to drive in a run and collect his seventh total base of the of the series. Two other Leathernecks collected seven total bases during the series as Matt Igara and Cowen matched Marcuzzo's feat.
Oral Roberts tied the score in the fourth inning with a sacrifice fly by Cam Schiller.
Schiller led off the the seventh inning with a long ball to right field to put the Golden Eagles up 2-1.
Three more runs we put on the board by ORU in the eighth inning powered by two Leatherneck errors.
"Overall, I cannot fault their effort and I am proud of them," continued Villano. "It was disappointing to lose the last two and there are a few things we need to get better at but overall we are a lot better team this week we were last week and the weeks prior to that," stated Villano.
Zarate went 7.2 innings and set down seven Golden Eagles via the strikeout.
"His last three starts have been very good," said Villano. "He flipped the script on them today about halfway through and he started throwing more inside fastballs and really started to located his pitches on both side of the plate."
"Obviously, anytime you get a kid to go 7.2 innings you know he is is battling for you and making pitches," continue Villano.
Western Illinois will travel to Modern Woodmen Park in Davenport, Iowa to wrap up the season series with the Iowa Hawkeyes and begin a 13-game road trip on Wednesday. A trip to Rochester, Mich. is on the agenda for the weekend to square off with Oakland for four games.
"It is always tougher to win on the road and Oakland will be a better team at their place than but we know we have the man power to go in there and compete and win those games," finished Villano. "It is just a matter of us getting the right bounces and executing."
