PEWAUKEE, Wis. – Mike Czarnik's game-winning RBI single with two outs in the top of the 10th propelled the Roosevelt baseball team to a 6-5 extra-inning nightcap win over host Cardinal Stritch to earn a doubleheader split on Saturday.
A three-run Stritch fourth erased the Lakers' 2-0 lead and nullified a quality start by rookie Cameron Simak in the opener, as Roosevelt could not rally from a run down in a 3-2 loss in Saturday's opener.
Roosevelt moved to 13-26 overall and 7-17 in CCAC play after winning for the fifth time in six games. Stritch is now 13-23 and 7-17 in league play.
Marcus Radz showed his resilience in game two, going nine innings and recording seven strikeouts. It was his second straight nine-inning effort and his third outing of at least eight innings in his last four starts.
Czarnik, Alex Neufeld, Danny Grzywa and Dylan Grabowski each had a pair of hits in the nightcap.
The game was knotted 3-3 when Roosevelt scored twice with two away in the top of the ninth. Czarnik crushed a ball that allowed him to circle the basepaths for an inside-the-park home run, and after Danny Haze reached after getting hit by a pitch, AJ Neufeld hit a double to left that brought in the frame's second score.
Unfortunately the Wolves replicated that output in their half of the ninth, as a bases-loaded walk and an RBI single tied the game at 5-5.
That set up Czarnik's second straight inning of two-out heroics in the top of the 10th. Grzywa hit a double down the left field line, and Czarnik hit a ball up the middle that reached center and gave Grzywa enough time to come home for a tie-breaking tally.
Reliever Liam Pegg escaped trouble after hitting the leadoff batter in the bottom of the 10th by getting the next three hitters to hit into outs to end the game.
Grabowski's first-inning sac fly and Grzywa's third-inning RBI single put Roosevelt up 2-0 early, but that was all the Lakers could muster at the plate.
Simak was stout in the opener, troubled only by a five-hit, three-run fourth that was sandwiched by three scoreless innings on each side of the decisive frame.
Michael Lally singled and stole second in the final inning, but he was left stranded as the tying run in the top of the seventh.
Roosevelt will have a chance to win the weekend series on Sunday, April 27 when the two teams meet at Standard Bank Stadium at 1 p.m. Senior Day festivities will take place 10 minutes prior to the game.
