Eric Gilbert
This past Saturday, the Titans were nothing short of entertaining. In the first game of a double header, they went down 2-0 early. It was short lived, however, as they dropped four on Auggie that same inning.
The charge was led by first-year catcher Patrick Mollo who went yard for his first home run of the season. Mollo had three RBIs for the game alongside senior outfielder Bobby Czarnowski. Czarnowski’s play during the course of this past week earned him “Player of the Week” in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin.
Czarnowski batted .533 (8-for-15) with seven runs, one triple, two home runs, six runs batted in and a 1.067 slugging percentage. Senior pitcher Jeff Johnson (4-1) went seven innings strong, allowing only four runs and fanning four.
Sophomore Dan Truesdale secured the victory to earn the save. It seemed to be all but over in game two as the Titans trailed 7-0 heading in the bottom half of the fifth. That is, until they tallied three and then five more in 7th to take the lead for good and complete a resilient comeback.
Senior shortstop Derek Idstein went yard in the 8th inning alongside Czarnowski who nearly hit the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity house. Czarnowski, Tim Connan, Jon Frericks and sophomore designated hitter Adam Glogovsky each had two hits, adding to an impressive 13-hit attack. To the crowd’s disbelief, junior John Munyon missed a chance at adding to his impressive save total but made up for it in ninth to earn the win.
“It was an awesome couple of games to watch. This team has a lot of talent and they showed that today. From a fan standpoint I love the atmosphere, and just being able to chill with my bros and watch some baseball is pretty cool,” said super fan John Boatman.
Augustana found a way to avoid the sweep on Wednesday, claiming an 11-8 victory in Moline, Illinois. Coonan, Idstein, Czarnowski and Frericks each had two hits to combine for eight of the team’s 12. Glogovsky continued his strong play of late with two hits and three RBI’s. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough as the Vikings were simply too dangerous offensively. The Titans are 16-9 overall and 10-2 in the CCIW while Augustana improved to 16-8 overall and 8-4 in the conference. The Titans play next at Benedictine University this Thursday in an out of conference game. Be sure to follow the Titans as they aim to secure a regular season CCIW championship and NCAA tournament bid.