The Aurora University baseball team had their season end in the 2019 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship regional on Saturday evening but not before a long day of two games, a win over Cornell College 3-2 and a heartbreaking defeat against Washington University 10-9 in 11 innings in St. Louis, Missouri.

GAME INFORMATION – Saturday, May 18
Game One Boxscore
Game Two Boxscore
Game One Score: #3 Aurora University 3, #4 Cornell College 2
Game Two Score: #1 Washington University 10, #3 Aurora University 9 - 11 innings
Records: Aurora University (35-11)
Location: St. Louis, Missouri - Washington University
Weather: 86 degrees and sunny

GAME ONE HIGHLIGHTS -
- The first five innings of the game was dominated by pitching and defense as Spartan Kyle Blunt kept the game scoreless.
- AU fell behind 1-0 in the sixth before Nicholas Mathey came on in relief of Blunt.
- The Spartans found themselves down 2-0 heading to the bottom of the seventh.
- In the seventh, leadoff walks to Jett Wedekind and Paul Dobravec were followed by a base hit bunt from Colin Rivard to load the bases. With two outs, Davis Purviance stepped to the plate and he took an 0-2 pitch off the center field fence which resulted in a bases clearing triple and AU led 3-2.
- Mathey made the one run lead hold up as he collected the win and the Spartans advanced in the regional tournament.

SPARTAN LEADERS - GAME ONE:
HITTING
HITS: Colin Rivard and Davis Purviance (2)
TRIPLE: Davis Purviance (1)
DOUBLE: Davis Purviance (1)
RUNS: Colin Rivard, Paul Dobravec and Jett Wedekind (1)
RUNS BATTED IN: Davis Purviance (3)

PITCHING:
APPEARANCES (innings): Kyle Blunt (5.1) and Nicholas Mathey (3.2)
DECISIONS: Nicholas Mathey (win, 2-0)
STRIKEOUTS: Nicholas Mathey (3) and Kyle Blunt (2)

GAME TWO HIGHLIGHTS -
- The Spartans scored first in the elimination game with Dylan White hitting a single to score Jeff Mayes and Austin Wiskow in the third.
- WashU scored four runs of their own, getting five two out singles to put AU down 4-2 after three innings.
- Jacob Bachio led off the fourth with a double and scored on a Davis Purviance single and AU trailed 4-3.
- In the fifth, the Spartans loaded the bases with one out and on a 3-2 pitch, senior Cole Davis homered to left for a grand slam and AU led 7-4.
- WashU scored twice in the bottom of the inning and the Spartans continued to lead 7-6 through five innings.
- AJ Gill led off the sixth with a triple and scored on a Dylan White ground out for an 8-6 Spartan lead.
- WashU scored one run in the seventh and eighth to tie the game up 8-8 heading to the ninth.
- Neither team would score in the ninth to send the elimination game to extra innings.
- The 10th inning was scoreless with Purviance singling and getting to second for AU and then Jett Wedekind throwing out a would be base stealer to end the bottom of the 10th.
- In the 11th, Colin Rivard got things going with two outs. He reached on an error, then stole second and two more WashU errors allowed him to score on the play and AU led 9-8.
- The bottom of the 11th saw WashU have the first two batters reach on a hit by pitch and walk. With one out, a single to right on a ball that took a bad hop off Cole Davis at first tied the game. After a fouled off squeeze attempt on the first pitch, the WashU pinch hitter singled up the middle, allowing the winning run to score.
- AU lost 10-9 to see the 2019 season come to an end.

SPARTAN LEADERS - GAME TWO:
HITTING
HITS: Six Spartans (2)
HOME RUN: Cole Davis (1 - Grandslam)
TRIPLE: AJ Gill (1)
DOUBLE: Jacob Bachio (1)
RUNS: Colin Rivard and Jacob Bachio (2)
RUNS BATTED IN: Cole Davis (4) and Dylan White (3)

PITCHING:
APPEARANCES (innings): Carter Turnquist (4.2), Michael Fidler (3.0) and Seth Gutknecht (2.2)
DECISIONS: Michael Fidler (loss, 1-1)
STRIKEOUTS: Michael Fidler and Seth Gutknecht (1)
 
UP NEXT