April 2, 2006

Maroons Split Twinbill with Edgewood

CHICAGO -- Junior shortstop Tony Zitek (Tampa, Fla./ Plant) drove in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning of game two as the University of Chicago baseball team salvaged a doubleheader split against Edgewood College Sunday at J. Kyle Anderson Field.

Zitek's one-out single plated junior third baseman Allen Cooper (Newburyport, Mass./ Governor Dummer) with the winning run as Chicago (4-9) took game two 7-6. Cooper led off the inning with a base hit, his second of the contest.

Chicago took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning when senior second baseman Matt Assad (Gurnee, Ill./ Carmel) clubbed his first career home run, a two-run blast with two outs. Assad was 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs in the nightcap.

Chicago rallied from behind on two occasions. Trailing 3-2 after four and one-half innings, Chicago scored twice in the bottom of the fifth to take a 4-3 lead. Junior first baseman Dan Cozzi (Park Ridge, Ill./ St. Ignatius) delivered an RBI double and later scored to give the Maroons a short-lived lead.

Edgewood answered with a pair of runs in the sixth to go ahead 5-4, before the Maroons tallied twice in their half of the sixth. Junior John Thomas (Bloomington, Ind./ South) drove in a run with a pinch-hit double and came around to score on a balk as Chicago regained the lead, 6-5, after six innings.

Sophomore left-hander Nathan Ginsberg (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y./ Dobbs Ferry) threw all seven innings to even his record at 1-1. He allowed eight hits and six runs -- only two of which were earned.

In the opener, Edgewood's (15-6) Andrew Handorf and Matt Werner each drove in a pair of runs as the Eagles defeated the Maroons 7-3. Scott Von Rueden went the distance, allowing six hits and three earned runs.

Thomas gave the Maroons an early 2-1 lead with a two-run double in the bottom of the second, but Edgewood responded with a run in the third and four in the fourth.

Cozzi (0-2) took the loss as he posted his second complete game of the year.

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