CRESTWOOD, Ill. - The Roosevelt baseball team staged a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth to show ferocious fight until the final pitch against St. Ambrose, but the Lakers could not overcome 16 walks issued to SAU hitters in a 10-7 loss in the home and CCAC opener at a sunny Ozinga Field on Tuesday.

Kerry Zeese went five innings and allowed just two earned runs on four hits to go with six punchouts, but he and three other Roosevelt pitchers were plagued by the free pass as St. Ambrose (4-4, 1-0 CCAC) scored eight times after the fifth inning primarily due to bases on balls getting Bees on board.

Lou Reynolds drove in two runs on an inside-the-park home run during the Lakers' last-gasp rally that saw Roosevelt (1-8, 0-1 CCAC) cut a seven-run deficit down to three, but RU's rally ran out of outs.

Roosevelt trailed 2-0 early when Wrigley McGuire, Chandler Giampietro and Connor Graefen drove in runs during a go-ahead three-run fourth inning.

Zeese was going strong in his first collegiate start before an error allowed the tying run to score in the sixth and chased the sophomore from the game. St. Ambrose tacked on two more runs on a two-out single.

The eighth proved to be costly with three runs scoring without a hit by the Bees, who were aided by walks, wild pitches and a sac fly to get a trio of tallies.

Two more runs for the guests came across in the ninth before Roosevelt came out swinging in the bottom half and battled until the very end, as Reynolds's wild round-tripper preceded Joey Fox's RBI double and Dom Lentini's sac fly.

Pitcher James Cormier was able to strike out Jake Hutchinson with a runner on first to end the game.

Reynolds, Fox, Matt Marrera and Jordan Coakley had two-hit days.

Roosevelt hosts a pair of doubleheaders at Ozinga Field this Saturday and Sunday against Concordia (Mich.). Both twinbills begin at 1 p.m. each day.