JOLIET, Ill. — Mack Malczewski and Ryan Daly combined on a three-hit shutout and Dan Gusel and Cliff Vickers each drove in a pair of runs to lead top-seeded University of St. Francis to its first Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament championship in 12 years with the Fighting Saints’ 4-0 victory over No. 5 St. Ambrose University on Monday night at Duly Health and Care Field.
Malczewski retired 12 of the first 14 batters he faced and scattered the three hits, all of which came after two outs in the first, fourth and fifth innings. Of the three, only Brandon Matias’ double in the first inning put a runner in scoring position.
St. Ambrose’s most serious threat came in the sixth inning when the Fighting Bees (28-22) bookended a pair of walks around a groundout and a flyout. A stolen base put runners at second and third base with the two outs.
Enter Daly, who struck out the final hitter of that inning, along with three other SAU batters over his 3 1/3 innings of relief, to record his second save of the season. The senior right-hander faced the minimum ten batters in that time span with the only man to reach base (hit batsman) being wiped out by a double play in the ninth inning.
Malczewski, who balanced seven groundouts with eight flyouts among his 17 outs recorded, won for the sixth time in nine decisions. He offset the two walks with a pair of strikeouts for his other two outs.
After missing on a two-out, bases-loaded scoring opportunity in the third inning, the Saints (29-19) took advantage of a St. Ambrose error to begin the fourth inning. After the next two batters grounded out, Vickers walked and went to second on a wild pitch. That set up Dan Gusel’s two-run single to center field to break the scoreless deadlock.
After St. Ambrose threatened in the top half of the sixth inning, the Saints added some more breathing room with Vickers’ home run with Brayan Hidalgo (single) aboard for the ride in the bottom half of the frame.  Vickers, Josh Kirnbauer and Nate Maliska all registered a pair of hits for the Saints on the night.
With the tournament title in hand, combined with its second straight regular-season CCAC crown, USF punches its ticket to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round, which will be held May 13-16. Head coach Brian Michalak‘s club will find out which of the ten sites hosting the Saints will be assigned on Thursday at 4 pm.
Notes: USF’s last conference tournament title came in 2012 … The last time the Saints swept both the league regular-season and tournament crowns was in 1997 closing out a three-year run of said feat and the only three times previously the program accomplished the dual championships … Monday’s shutout was just the second of the season for the pitching staff and came only two days after St. Ambrose totaled 31 runs in a doubleheader sweep to advance to the championship round … The three hits allowed were also the fewest for a St. Francis opponent this spring … Malczewski recorded two of the four wins in the tournament for the Saints and pitched in three of the four contests. He also won the opener with three innings of scoreless relief. The graduate student finished the tournament not allowing a run over his 9 2/3 innings pitched … Vickers, who came into the tournament with three home runs on the season, bookended his two round-trippers over the five-day stretch with his initial one in the first game and the latter on Monday … Hidalgo, Maliska and Kirnbauer all hit better than .400 for the tournament with Hidalgo leading the way (.500, 7-for-14). Maliska (.450, 9-for-20) had the most hits with Kirnbauer (.438, 7-for-16), McGuire and Jake Klepacz all recording seven hits … Gusel, who had four hits and three RBIs in the tournament, came up clutch in three of them. Besides Monday night’s two-run single, he also had an RBI single in the five-run ninth inning uprising in Friday’s win over Saint Xavier University and started the three-run ninth-inning rally against Olivet Nazarene University on Saturday … The win was the first one in five games that the Saints did not need a ninth-inning rally to come out on top.