The St. Ambrose Fighting Bees ripped off 35 hits in a three-game sweep of conference opponent Trinity International, picking up the road win on Friday to a score of 12-4, and dominating the doubleheader at home on Saturday with finals scores of 11-3 and 13-5.

The Bees rattled off double-digit hits in all three of their matchups against the Trojans.

St. Ambrose put Friday's road game away in a hurry. After going scoreless in the first inning, the Fighting Bees unleashed a nine-run inning in the second. The Bees fired off nine hits in the second inning.

Three Bees came up with a multi-RBI hit in the second. Shawn Rigsby opened up the scoring for the Bees with a rocket 2-RBI double to right field that scored Mike Snow and Mike Coughlin. Liam Dennehy followed him up with a 2-RBI hit of his own on a single pulled to left field that scored Rigsby and pinch-running Kyel Alexander. Brenden Butler plated his teammates Cooper Huckabone and Cole Aughenbaugh on a single to the gap in left field.

Trinity International (12-23, 4-19 CCAC) did all they could to muster a few runs across and even kept the Bess from scoring for five straight innings, but the second-inning explosion from the Bees proved to be too much.

Michael Dudek, backed by a load of run support, picked up the Friday win with ease, improving his 2021 record to 3-3. Dudek only allowed three earned runs and struck out four Trojans in six innings pitched. Malcolm Walker pitched the final three innings and picked up the save, his first of the season.

St. Ambrose looked to Colton Carr to carry the load for them on the mound in game 1 of the doubleheader on Saturday at Modern Woodmen Park. Carr found some early run support from his squad when Dennehy blasted a home run over the wall in left in the bottom of the first, his fourth of the season.

Carr would lose control of the lead in the second, allowing two runs for the Trojans. But the Bees were able to find a response in their half of the inning, scratching four runs across to regain the lead at 5-2, largely in part to Coughlin and Nate Villagomez both cranking RBI-triples over the right-fielder's head to get the offense ignited.

Trinity International would score one more run in the third inning, but Carr and the St. Ambrose defense would shut them out for the remainder of the game, capped off by a beautiful game-ending double play turned by Butler. Carr picked up his team-leading sixth win of the season in the game 1 victory, with three earned runs and four punchouts over seven innings.

In the series finale, the Bees handed the ball to junior dealer Conor OHara in his fourth start of the year. OHara was able to keep the Trojans at bay for the first four innings, only allowing run on and punching out six to go with some more early run support from the Fighting Bees' bats. Dennehy was able to steal his way around the bases and score on a wild pitch to give the Bees the lead in the first inning. The Trinity International pitching crew was having trouble with their control and the Bees were able to capitalize, advancing 11 bases off of Trinity wild pitches.

However, OHara found himself in a jam early in the fifth inning. Lefty pitcher Casey Hollan came in from the bullpen to get the Bees out of the jam relatively unscathed, only surrendering three runs.

It was all for not for the Trojans, as the Bees would punch in seven more runs in the fifth and sixth innings, punctuated by Butler's third home run of the season, a two-run shot to left in the sixth.

Hollan would close out the final five innings on the mound, picking up the win in relief. Hollan only allowed one earned run and struck out five Trojans in his second win of the season.

Dennehy stole five bases over the three-game set, improving his team-leading total of stolen bases to 21 on the season.

St. Ambrose improves to 22-18 overall and 18-5 in the CCAC, putting them in the top spot in the conference. The CCAC's top team will take on Trinity Christian on April 27th for a doubleheader in Palos Heights, Ill.

Videos below courtesy SAUtv

Liam Dennehy hits a solo home run to give St. Ambrose a 1-0 lead in the first inning

Mike Coughlin steals home to give SAU a 3-2 lead in the second inning

Nate Villagomez triples to score Mike Snow for a 4-2 lead in the second

Brenden Butler's 2-run single ups the lead to 11-3 in the sixth inning

Brenden Butler steps on third and throws to first for a game-ending double play