UChicago Completes Four-Game Sweep of Emory; Claims Top Spot in the UAA Heading into Final Weekend
The University of Chicago baseball team claimed the top spot in the UAA standings as the Maroons completed their four-game sweep of Emory with a 15-5 victory on Sunday afternoon.
Emory struck first with a big inning in the opening frame as the Eagles tallied a double, a walk, and a three-run home run in three consecutive batters to open the scoring. Then, the Maroons walked three of the next four batters to bring home another run, putting UChicago in front by a score of 4-0.
In the bottom of the inning, Braden Jirovec ripped a triple into the right field corner, and Erik Rindner hit a sacrifice fly to deep left field, putting the Maroons on the board. Following another run by Emory in the top of the second, UChicago went back to work with three more runs in the bottom of the inning. Harrison Belden singled, and Jack Sharp doubled to put a pair of runners in scoring position. After a wild pitch brought home Belden, Sharp scored on an infield single by Jirovec. Then, later in the inning, after a pair of wild pitches moved Jirovec to third and Michael Gladden was hit by a pitch, Gladden was picked off and got into a rundown that allowed Jirovec to score the fourth run of the game before Gladden was tagged out.
After using three pitchers in the first two innings, the Maroons turned the ball over to Connor Dong at the top of the third inning, and he put up the best performance of his career. After only throwing 5.0 innings in his career entering Sunday, Dong fired 5.0 shutout innings against the potent Emory offense, holding the Eagles to just three base runners over the final five innings of work.
With Dong shutting down the Emory bats, the UChicago came alive with a dominant performance to help complete the 15-5 run rule victory. In the bottom of the third inning, UChicago loaded the bases on a pair of singles by Ryan Bhojwani and Max Wiesner and a walk by Belden, and Sharp ripped a two-run single to right field to give the Maroons their first lead of the game. Then, following a groundout to move the runners into scoring position, Jirovec added a two-run single, and Gladden doubled him home to cap off the five-run inning, stretching the lead to 9-5.
The offensive explosion continued in the fifth innings with a pair of singles from Sharp and Jirovec, and Erik Rindner etched his name in the UChicago record book with a three-run home run over the left field wall to tie the all-time UChicago career record for both home runs and RBIs. His home run gave him 26 home runs and 150 RBIs, putting him level with Mark Mosier, a 1997 graduate and a 43rd round selection in the 1997 MLB draft by the San Francisco Giants, in both categories.
Bhojwani capped off the fifth inning with an RBI single to bring home Gladden to take an eight-run lead. In the seventh inning, Braden Jirovec was hit by a pitch and joined Rindner in the UChicago record book as the senior stole both second and third base to take down the all-time UChicago stolen bases, taking down Scott Kenagy's record from 1992 with 86 career stolen bases. Following the stolen bases, Rindner and Nathan Bae walked to load the bases with two outs. The Maroons sealed the victory with a bases loaded walk by Wiesner and a game-winning hit down the left field line by Belden to finish the 15-5 victory.
Braden Jirovec had one of the top offensive performances of the season on Sunday with a perfect 4-4 day, five runs scored, and three RBIs. Jack Sharp added three hits, three runs, and a pair of RBIs, and Erik Rindner tallied four RBIs in the win.
With the win, the Maroons improve to 18-13 overall on the season and 11-5 in UAA play. UChicago holds a one-game lead over the WashU Bears with four games to play in the UAA season.