From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
The Case Western Reserve University baseball team swept a doubleheader against Oberlin College at Nobby's Ballpark on Wednesday afternoon, winning the first game 11-4 and the second game 17-0, as the Spartans ran their winning streak to a season-long eight games.
With three games remaining on the schedule for the year, the Spartans improved to 24-12, marking the seventh-straight season that the team has won at least 24 games. Case Western Reserve has now won 16 of its last 19 games, and improved to 8-2 at home.
Oberlin dropped to 13-16 with the two losses.
Freshman first baseman Mike Najmowicz drove in eight runs over the two games, including four on a grand slam in the first inning of the first game, his team-leading fourth home run of the season. Freshman shortstop Rocco Maue added six hits in 10 at bats and scored five runs, and sophomore designated hitter Daniel Watson drove in four runs. Junior center fielder Aaron Cain had hits in both games, extending his hitting streak to nine contests.
Game 1: CWRU 11, Oberlin 4
Junior Jake Shields threw eight solid innings to pick up his team-leading seventh win of the season, and the Spartans never looked back after Najmowicz's first inning grand slam, en route to the 11-4 win over Oberlin in the first game of the day.
Shields scattered eight hits and two walks, while striking out three and lowering his season ERA to 3.77. He improved to 7-2 overall on the campaign with the victory, while the outing marked his second straight game with at least eight innings on the mound.
Najmowicz got the Spartans on the board in the first, sending a 2-1 pitch with one out and the bases loaded over the wall in left field, for his fourth home run of the campaign. After Oberlin scored in the third, the Spartans added a run in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single from junior left fielder Josh Neal that scored freshman third baseman Jacob Kucia. A solo home run in the fifth from the Yeomen's Jake Reynolds cut the Spartans lead to 5-2, but the Spartans scored a pair in the sixth and four in the eighth to help lockup the victory.
Najmowicz went two-for-five with a career-high six RBIs in the game, and Kucia added a pair of RBIs on a one-for-four game at the plate.
Oberlin starter David Gaetano suffered the loss, falling to 0-2 on the season.
Game 2: CWRU 17, Oberlin 0
Six different CWRU pitchers combined for the team's first shutout of the season, and Maue had a career-high five hits, as the Spartans topped Oberlin 17-0 in the second game of the day.
Junior Preston Williams earned the win to improve to 5-0 on the year, holding Oberlin scoreless on three hits and striking out three over three innings. Sophomore Nate Glasser followed with a pair of shutout innings, while senior Neal Krentz, junior Andrew Rossman, freshman Ben Chapman and sophomore Liam Killingstad each added scoreless innings during the game.
After collecting three hits in the first two innings of the game, the Spartans staff held the Yeomen without another hit until the eighth inning, and to just four total in the game. The shutout was the team's first since a 12-0 win over Pitt.-Greensburg on April 10, 2015.
Case Western Reserve plated three runs in the first and five in the second off Oberlin starter Jack Reiss, who lasted just two innings. The Spartans added four more in the third, another in the sixth and four in the eighth to run away with the victory.
Maue finished the game five-for-six with five runs scored and three RBIs, while Watson was two-for-three with a triple and three RBIs. Sophomore second basemen Danny Souza added a three-for-five performance with a double, two runs and an RBI.