The College of DuPage baseball team continued to dominate offensively at home on April 30. Battling Morton College (35-16), the Chaparrals wanted revenge after taking a loss in the Panthers’ yard earlier in the season. COD once again flaunted their hitting abilities to stun Morton this time around. The Chaps crushed the Panthers 21-8 in seven innings, strengthening their record to 23-16 and extending their win streak to seven games.
“There’s very few things that you can say on a day like today,” assistant coach Matt Gould said. “Of course, I did nitpick a little bit, and I made fun of their base running for a half second. Aside from that, it was a complete game. Whoever I put in seems to come up big, and that’s a good feeling to have as we finish up the season here.”
Sophomore catcher Filip Milatovic continued to lead COD offensively, smacking three doubles in five at-bats. He also led the team with seven RBIs and scored three runs. He said it’s easy for him to make run-scoring plays when his teammates get on base.
“I’ve got to shout out my teammates,” Milatovic said. “They get on base for me, so it makes my job pretty easy. You put pressure on a pitcher when you’re always on base. [A pitcher] has to make a good pitch, so it takes the pressure off of me when he has to worry about three guys on base. All I’ve got to do is put the ball into the outfield, and hit the ball hard.”
Sophomore outfielder Aden Aukland recorded two runs and three RBIs to assist the Chaps on offense. In five at-bats, he made two hits and struck out once. After spending his past few appearances as the designated hitter, he said he found success against the Panthers by staying relaxed at the plate.
“Today was a big day for me because I’ve been struggling the last two weeks,” Aukland said. “I changed up my approach a little bit. I went up [to bat] and tried not to do too much. I tried to see [the ball] out of [the pitcher’s] hand as best as I could, and it worked.”
Freshman pitcher Troy Vosburgh made his first start of the season, pitching through five innings. He threw three strikeouts and two walks, but gave up eight hits and six runs. Earning his first win in his first start, he said he was happy with his performance against Division II Morton College.
“I threw strikes,” Vosburgh said. “Sometimes they hit it because they’re a good-hitting team. I wasn’t nervous, but I was glad I was in the zone mostly. Walks will kill you and hitting people will kill you, so I kept that to a minimum as best as I could.”
Sophomore outfielder Jake Pauley ended the day with two hits in four at-bats. He also scored two runs, stole two bases and collected three RBIs. He said as exciting as their win streak is, the Chaps keep their focus on their next opponents as the season winds down.
“You just have to flush it and get ready for the next game,” Pauley said. “That’s how we’ve been keeping our streak going. We win a game, and then we don’t look in the past. It’s nothing to us. We look forward to the future. As long as our pitchers keep stepping up like they have been, and our hitters keep putting the ball into play and hitting it hard, it’s going to find some gaps. When you put up 21 runs, you’re not going to lose many ball games.”
Gould credited the bullpen for adapting to different roles as other pitchers recover from injury.
“[Vosburgh] stepped into a new role,” he said. “[AJ Burnett] usually starts, and some other circumstances led to him being a reliever for today. Both of those guys adapted. If it’s not for them being able to step in to do those jobs, our offense might not have had the opportunity to build such a big lead. They kept the run total down.”
With four games left in the regular season, COD looks to win their eighth consecutive game against the College of Lake County Lancers (22-16) at 3 p.m. on May 1 in Grayslake, Ill.
