CRESTWOOD, Ill. – The Roosevelt baseball team moved closer to its target of qualifying for the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament by sweeping a doubleheader against rival Robert Morris at Standard Bank Stadium on Tuesday.
The Lakers defeated the Eagles 3-0 in the opener behind another complete-game shutout pitched by Matt Garbacz before cruising to an 11-3 decision in the nightcap that clinched a 2-1 regular-season series win over Roosevelt's downtown rivals.
The two wins allowed Roosevelt to improve to 23-20 overall, which allowed the 2018 Lakers to set a new single-season program record for wins. Roosevelt won 22 games two seasons ago to establish the mark that head coach Steve Marchi's squad surpassed on Tuesday.
The win also catapulted the Lakers into a tie for second place in the CCAC standings, with Roosevelt currently sitting at 17-9 to match Trinity Christian for the second spot behind league-leading Judson (21-4) with four games to play. Roosevelt plays a three-game series against the Eagles this weekend and rounds out the regular season next Tuesday against the Trolls.
Garbacz tossed his second complete-game shutout of the season and third start of at least seven scoreless innings, fanning seven hitters in the process.
Tyler Kirkwood held the Lakers hitless into the fifth of the opening game before Jonah Meidl-Zahorodny broke up the no-hit bid with a single.
The Lakers then broke up Kirkwood's shutout bid in the sixth as Tyler Ward, Charley Zeschke and Leo Lunatto hit RBI singles to give the Lakers enough offense to support Garbacz, who evaded bases-loaded trouble in the seventh that brought the go-ahead run to the plate but saw the sophomore right-hander hunker down and keep the Eagles (33-15, 16-10 CCAC) off the scoreboard and the Lakers on the winning side.
Roosevelt took an early lead against RMU in game two by scoring a run without a hit. Zeschke drove in the run on a sac fly after a pair of errors allowed runners aboard and in scoring position.
The game stayed a one-run affair until Roosevelt posted back-to-back three-run innings in the fifth and sixth, and after RMU scored three runs in the top of the seventh, the Lakers more than made up for that with a four-run eighth.
Matt Marrera and Matt Kozlak drove in three runs apiece, and Zeschke joined Matt Donahue in driving in two runs each.
Nick Simak got the win with 6.2 strong innings, and Anthony Nicholas limited the seventh-inning damage and closed out the game.
Roosevelt starts its three-game set against Judson on Friday in Elgin.
