Run in the ninth defeats St. Ambrose

Run in the ninth defeats St. Ambrose

Saint Xavier scored in the bottom of the ninth inning to defeat St. Ambrose 3-2 in Chicago Tuesday afternoon.

SAU's Colton Carr had limited Saint Xavier to just four hits and a pair of unearned runs over seven innings. The Cougars (21-10, 5-5 CCAC) took advantage of Bee errors in both the second and third innings to push across their unearned runs.

Cole Aughenbaugh got St. Ambrose on the board with a sacrifice fly in the third that scored Peyton Minder, who drew a walk to lead off the inning. Minder also scored the Bees' second run. He tripled leading off the seventh and scored on Mike Coughlin's one-out squeeze bunt to tie the game at 1-1.

The Bees, who stranded nine runners in falling to 6-15 overall and 4-5 in the CCAC, had the potential go-ahead run in scoring position in the eighth when Gabe Panza reached second on a one-out error. But even after a Tyler Franc two-out walk put runners on first and second, SAU was unable to capitalize.

SXU won it in the bottom of the ninth. A lead-off single, a one-out wild pitch and an intentional walk were followed by a walk-off hit through the right side that scored the game-winning run.

Jack Staten was charged with the loss.

St. Ambrose will next play a weekend three-game series with Robert Morris. The teams will play a doubleheader in Bensenville, Ill., Saturday before completing the set with a game in Davenport Sunday.