Following a tough weekend against Crown College, the Jacks rebounded in their first home series on Saturday behind the strong pitching performance of Senior Kyle Strom, Crown Point, Ind.  Strom was able to shut down the Cougar offense and went the distance scattering 7 hits and giving up 3 runs, only 1 of which was earned to gain the complete game win. The Jacks offense, which had 13 hits was led by the top of the batting order comprised of Freshman Outfielder Jakob Freele (Smartville, CA.), Junior Outfielder Mitch Howard, (Black Earth, Wis.), and Senior Jacob Hodgdon, Outfielder (Winnebago, Ill.) who collected 7 of the teams 13 hits.  Other Jacks adding to the offense were Freshman Catcher Alex Loberger, (Maribel, Wis.), who collected two hits and Freshman Will Serviss (Rocky Point, NY.) added a hit and an RBI to round out the offensive attack.

In game two of the Saturday doubleheader, the Jacks and Cougars battled in a game that provided plenty of offense on both ends totaling 28 runs and 33 hits combined.

With both teams knowing the importance of the weekend in regards to conference standings, both teams came out swinging early and often. The Jacks were able to jump on the Cougars early scoring 3 runs in the first two innings all on Cougar miscues. After surrendering that early lead and allowing the Cougars to take the lead back at 4-3 after the top half of the 4th inning, the Jacks were able to answer with a big inning of their own scoring 8 runs of their own fueled by Jacks Freshman Outfielder Jakob Freele (Smartville, CA.), Freshman Third Baseman Alex Elliott, (Middleton, Wis.), and Freshman Second Baseman Matt Alberino (Medford, MA.), all of which had big hits driving in 2 runs a piece. To their credit, the Cougars again battled back and got within a run at 12-11 after 7 innings, but the Jacks were able to come up big in the bottom of the 8th inning plating 4 insurance runs and stretching the lead to 5 going into the final frame. In the 9th, Junior Pitcher Jacob Smith, (Oconomowoc, Wis.) was able to finish the job for the Jacks as they were able to take a crucial doubleheader from the Cougars.

On Sunday, in the final game of the series, the Jacks came up on the short end of a 13-8 final. After falling behind early, the Jacks were not able to get the bats going like they had on Saturday until it was too late and the Cougars avoided the sweep. The Jacks were led in the game by Freshman Outfielder Jakob Freele (Smartville, CA.) and Senior First Baseman Daniel Kollauf (Ashland, Wis.), who collected 3 and 4 hits respectively.

Head Coach Ernie May commented "Saturday's doubleheader was big for us as a team coming off of a weekend that didn't go the way we would have liked, so it was nice to see the guys come together and get the job done against a tough Morris team."  May also added "We knew Morris wasn't going to go away when we took a big lead in that second game, and they were able to make it interesting, but to our credit we got the insurance we needed to finish off the game and take two important ones when its this time in the season."


The Jacks are now 6-4 in UMAC play and 10-16 overall and currently are in 4^th place.