ALTON – The Marquette Catholic baseball team defeated Father McGivney by a score of 9-0 on Wednesday (March 23) at Lloyd Hopkins Field. The Explorers improve to 3-2 on the season while the Griffins fall to 1-3.
Starting the game on the mound for Marquette was senior Logan Sternickle. He started the game with two strikeouts in the first inning, finishing with 8 K’s on the day. He also batted well picking up two hits, including an RBI.
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The Explorers wasted no time putting some points on the board in this one.
Having himself a day was Myles Paniagua, who was a home run short of hitting for the cycle. His RBI triple scored two runs in the first inning to take the early 2-0 lead.
Hayden Sherman helped tack on another run in the second with his RBI single to make it 3-0.
Paniagua got on base again with a double in the third and then Sean Mitchell batted him in to make it a 4-0 game.
The play of the game for Marquette came from Sternickle’s pitching. He found himself with the bases loaded with no outs in the top of the fourth. He proceeded to strike out the next three batters to end the inning and get out of the jam.
Marquette fed off that energy and went and scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth to increase their lead to 9-0.
“We’ve been swinging the bats well, but we haven’t been playing the best defense so it’s good to put it all together tonight and get the W,” Marquette head coach Tim Fahnestock said postgame.
In the end, Marquette’s closers Andrew Roth and Broc Brown got the job done combining for three K’s in the final two innings.
The Griffins still gave it everything they had. Their pitching was just as good as Marquette’s. Both teams finished with 11 K’s. Daniel Gierer and Jackson Rodgers each had five for Father McGivney with the other coming from Riley Strack.
But the key stat of the game was hits. The Explorers out hit the Griffins 12-3 and that’s what mattered. McGivney’s pitching wasn’t bad, Marquette’s bats were just hot.
“Not the way we wanted it to go,” McGivney head coach Chris Erwin said. ‘We just couldn’t get the energy going today.”
He mentioned the bad playing conditions but didn’t use it as an excuse. It was in the mid 40’s with some wind and intermittent rain, definitely not ideal, but some Griffins players mentioned that both teams had to play in it. The Explorers dealt with it a little bit better.
Marquette picks up the bounce-back win after a 12-7 setback against Piasa Southwestern on Monday (March 21) while it is the Griffins’ third straight loss.
Marquette will look to continue their winning ways when they take on Gillespie (March 24) at 4:30 p.m. from Gordon Moore Park.
The Explorers and Griffins will meet again this season on April 13th at 4:30 p.m. at Father McGivney.
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