From Washington University Athletics
After two weeks without games because of rain, the No. 20-ranked Washington University in St. Louis baseball team secured a doubleheader sweep over Millikin University Sunday afternoon, beating the Big Blue 13-1 and 5-4 in the two game series at Sunnyside Ballpark.
WashU improved to 22-8 overall on the season while the Big Blue dropped to 22-18. The Bears were led by senior pitcher Brad Margolin's complete game four-hitter in game one, while sophomore Zack Kotin notched his fourth win of the year in the second game as senior Jake Mintz picked up the save.
Despite the time off the baseball field, WashU's offense racked up 26 hits between the two games with 13 hits in each contest. Freshman John Brinkman knocked in five runs to lead the Bears attack while WashU's batters accumulated nine multi-hit games.
Game 1: WashU 13 – Millikin 1
WashU took advantage of a wild pitch swinging strikeout on what would have been the final out of the second inning. After senior Scott Nelson hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield for the second out that allowed senior Ted Daley to score, freshman AJ Dunham swung and missed at the third strike on what would have represented the last out of the frame. However a wild pitch allowed him to reach base.
The Bears feasted on the mistake sending five additional batters to the plate as WashU batted through the entire lineup. Senior Austin Darmawan, junior Auggie Mense, senior Christian Santos and Brinkman all knocked in runs to give the Bears a 6-0 advantage.
Millikin crossed the board in the bottom of the fourth inning to conclude Margolin's scoreless inning streak at 34 innings. The Big Blue's Jake Drada and Julian Gutierrez hit back-to-back doubles.
The Bears added six runs in the sixth. Darmawan and Mense scored after leading the inning off with a walk and double. Santos knocked in Mense and senior Ben Browdy with a triple before scoring on a double by senior Tate Maider. Senior Matt Clohisy capped off the big inning with a pinch hit single up the middle knocking in the final two runs of the frame. WashU led 12-1 after the surge and picked up an additional run in the seventh.
With the victory Margolin moved into sole possession of sixth place with his 22nd career victory in WashU history. He also ascended into eighth place in school history in innings pitched, 220 1/3 in total bypassing Jerry Thornton (220 innings – 1967-70) and George Schmidt (214 1/3 – 1972-75).
Game 2: WashU 5 - Millikin 4
WashU jumped ahead in the first inning of the second game as Darmawan, Mense and Browdy all singled to load the bases. Santos followed with a sacrifice fly and Brinkman plated Mense with a single to right field which helped the Bears to a 2-0 first inning lead.
Gutierrez knocked in another run for the Big Blue in the bottom of the first to cut the WashU advantage in half. Brinkman once again made it a two run advantage for WashU with a run scoring single in the third.
Millikin cut the lead down to one run again with a homer by Jake Stanton but Brinkman was the answer for WashU in the fifth with the second home run of his career.
The Big Blue scored in the seventh but refused to let Brinkman put the Bears ahead by two yet again. Instead Millikin intentionally walked Brinkman in the eighth which helped lead to a run scoring base-on-balls by Maider to give the Bears a 5-3 advantage.
One inning after getting the Bears out of harms way, senior Mintz found himself in trouble after a leadoff walk and single. He induced a ground ball for a double play but an infield single cut WashU's lead to 5-4. Mintz struck out the inning's final batter to maintain the one run gap.
Millikin once again threatened in the ninth inning with multiple runners on base before Mintz got Gutierrez to fly out to leftfield for the game ending out, securing a 5-4 WashU victory.
Brinkman knocked in three runs while going 3-for-4 at the plate as Browdy added three hits of his own in five attempts. Mense led the Bears with two runs scored as he leads the team with 29 runs on the season.