Pack wins two more at St. Thomas

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The 21-ranked Loyola Wolf Pack baseball team continued to flex their muscle on Saturday, winning two more games at St. Thomas (Fla.). Loyola opened the day with a 16-4 win before closing Day 2 against the Bobcats with an 11-0 victory. The Wolf Pack (16-3) will go for the four-game sweep on Sunday with the series finale set for 12 p.m. CST. 
 

Game 1: #21 Loyola 16, St. Thomas 4

Loyola started the day by scoring the first 14 runs to easily take the second game of the four-game series. Brandon Mooney and Garrett Felix, who hit in the No. 1 and No. 2 spots in the lineup both collected three RBI, and five- and seven-hole hitters Marcus Steen and Jaxon Buratt collected four and three RBI, respectively. 
 

Both Buratt and Mooney had RBI singles in the second inning, and Felix brought another home on a sacrifice fly, 3-0. Buratt notched his second RBI in the third, 4-0, and a grand slam by Steen in the fourth pushed Loyola's lead to 8-0. That was just the start to the 10-run inning, too, as Jake Mills worked a bases-loaded walk to score the fifth run of the frame, then singles by Mooney and Romero, and a triple from Felix, plated five more runs to put the Pack on top, 14-0. St. Thomas scored four in the bottom half, 14-4, but two more runs by Loyola in the fifth and the seventh ended the scoring. 
 

Prescott Marsh started on the bump and struck out four in his 3.1 innings of work, and Ryder Loup earned his first collegiate win in an abbreviated outing. Matthew Weil finished the final three frames to be eligible for the save. 
 

Game 2: #21 Loyola 11, St. Thomas 0

Payton Cooper picked up right where his pitching teammates left off, allowing just two hits in five shutout innings. While he was dominating on the bump, Loyola scored eight runs through the first five innings to take control of the game. 
 

Mills scored Buratt in the second to get things going, and Landon Trosclair came home later in the inning on a passed ball. A sacrifice fly for Buratt in the fourth made it a 3-0 lead, and five more runs in the fifth busted things open. Collin Zeringue scored two on a sinlge to left, and Steen and Landon Manson each brought runners home as well. 
 

Romero homered in the seventh to pushed the lead to 9-0, and Manson and Buratt scored two more on a single and a sac fly. 
 

Cole Bordes pitched the final two shutout innings with one hit allowed and two strikeouts. 
 

Pack Facts

• Nine of the Wolf Pack's 16 victories this season have been by at least 10 runs, seven of those games have ended early with the 10-run rule, and three of those have been shutout wins. 

• Loyola's 10 runs in the fourth inning of Game 1 Saturday were its most in a single inning of any game this season. 

• Brandon Mooney multi-hit game streak came to an end, but he did have hits in both games Saturday, three total, to increase his hit streak to 15 games.

• Mooney is now tied for ninth place in the Wolf Pack record book in career hits with 192. 

• Cole Romero also had a hit in each game, one of which was his team-best fifth home run of the season, to move his hitting streak to 14 games. Romero now has 14 home runs in a Wolf Pack uniform.

• Marcus Steen had a pair of hits in each game, including a grand slam, which was his second home run of the season. 

• Jaxon Buratt reached base all five times in Game 1, including three hits, one of which was a double, three runs, and three RBI. 

• Landon Manson had two hits in each game, hitting a double in each game as well.

• In Game 1, 12 different players reached base for the Pack. In Game 2, the team's 11 runs were scored by 11 different players. 

• Loyola totaled 14 hits in Game 1 and 10 hits in Game 2. The Pack has double-digit hits in 13 games this season, including six straight.