Box Score After the Loyola Wolf Pack won the first two games of their series with Xavier, the Gold Rush salvaged the series with a win Sunday
WESTWEGO – With the series already won, the Loyola Wolf Pack baseball team dropped their series finale to Xavier Sunday, 4-2, to miss out on the series sweep of the Gold Rush. The Wolf Pack is now 10-8 overall and they'll welcome No. 14 Lyon College to Segnette Field for a three-game series starting Friday.
After Xavier got on the board first in the second inning, Loyola took the lead with two runs in the fourth inning. Patrick Crifasi singled, Landon Troslciar was walked, and Christopher Bohrer was hit to load the bases with one out, then Aaron Davis plated the first run with a sacrifice fly. Tucker Ganley singled during the next at-bat to give the Pack a 2-1 lead, but he was thrown out at second trying to stretch his single.
Stephen Still got the start for Loyola and pitched well, giving up three unearned runs on five hits with six strikeouts during his 5.2 innings of work. The freshman gave up his first unearned run in the second inning, but he worked around a bases-loaded jam in the first inning and one-out hits in the third and fourth frames before pitching a clean fifth inning. Still, however, loaded the bases in the sixth inning before handing the ball to Wes Anderson out of the bullpen. The Gold Rush scored two runs after an error on a pop-up in the infield to regain the lead, 3-2.
Another run in the seventh pushed Xavier's advantage to 4-2.
The Wolf Pack left nine runners on base throughout the contest, which includes leaving the bases loaded in the third inning and one runner each in the eighth and ninth innings.
On Sunday's performance:
"It was a disappointing one for us. We're just in that transition phase where we show signs where we can be good and show signs where we're not, but we're going in the right direction because it's not just bad. It's just not good enough yet, so we just have to stay the course. We just have to keep working, keep trying to get our mentality right, control the things that are in our control and continue to build on our skillset. Eventually, I think it'll turn. We're just not there yet, so we'll just keep plugging away at it."
On Stephen Still's outing:
"He did a good job and he competed. He had good stuff, but he didn't have his best stuff and he competed with it. He did a really good job in making an adjustment in that way from his last start. He's a young guy who's learning on the fly and he did a good job. He gave us every chance to win that game and we just didn't do it."
Pack Facts
With his single in the fourth inning, Tucker Ganley extended his on-base streak to nine games.
Six strikeouts for Stephen Still are the second-most of his career. The freshman has pitched 5.2 innings twice this season, and in both outings, he gave up no earned runs.
With two more walks drawn today, Michael Calamari leads Loyola in walks with 17. He's drawn at least one walk in 11 games this year.
Calamari also extended his on-base streak to seven games. He's reached first base in 16 of the 17 games this season.
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