Pete Sparacino held Augustana to one unearned run over eight innings and Devin Melecio drove in two runs to pace North Park to 7-2 win over Augustana to complete a doubleheader sweep on Saturday in Rock Island.
Sparacino and Augie righty Josiah Martin dueled for two scoreless innings before North Park got on the board in the third. Zach Deutscher walked, moved up on a sacrific bunt by Mike Sommerfield, and came in when the Augie second baseman made two errors on the same play. They added a run in the fourth on a single by Ryan Javech and a double by Melecio, then widened the lead to 4-0 with a pair of unearned runs in the sixth. Andy Athans singled, stole second, and scored on an error; Brian Staatz later came in on a single by Deutscher. North Park moved to a 5-0 lead with another unearned run in the seventh as Mike Domenick singled, took second on a passed ball, advanced on a fly ball, and scored on a groundout off the bat of Javech.
The two foes traded runs in the eighth. Staatz walked, stole second, took third on a passed ball, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Sommerfield. Augie finally broke the ice with three singles and an error. In the ninth, Domenick singled, moved up on a wild pitch, and scored on a Melecio single, and Augie used a hit batsman, two singles and a sacrifice fly against reliever Tito Garza.
Sparacino (4-1) scattered eight hits over eight innings to earn the win. He struck out five and walked only one. Domenick, Melecio, and Trevor Popp each had a pair of hits.
North Park (15-7, 4-2) looks to complete the three-game sweep with a single game on Sunday. |
