The Case Western Reserve University baseball team, ranked 24th in Division III, secured its third-straight series win to begin the University Athletic Association season, besting the 21st-ranked University of Chicago 11-2 in the series finale in Chicago on Sunday afternoon.

The victory gives the Spartans a leg up in the conference standings with two four-game series remaining for each of the six teams in the league. CWRU now stands at 9-3 in the UAA, one game ahead of Chicago, which dropped to 8-4 in the league following the loss. The Spartans improved to 20-10 overall while the Maroons fell to 21-9 on the season.

CWRU sophomore left-handed pitcher Quinn Saunders and junior right-handed pitcher Archer Stankowski combined to allow just two runs on five hits in the series finale on Sunday. Saunders went the first four and a third innings and yielded just one hit and a walk with four strikeouts with two runs on his record crossing the plate after he had left the game. Despite allowing the two inherited runners, Stankowski did not let in a run of his own in his four and two-thirds innings on the hill, giving up just four hits and three walks while striking out four and earning the win in the contest to improve to 5-0 on the season.

At the plate, graduate student catcher Jack Anderson went two-for-five with a triple, two runs, and three RBIs, while senior left fielder Logan Andreyko added three RBIs on a two-for-four effort with a triple and a run scored. Graduate student second baseman Franco Alonso went four-for-four with a double, two runs, and a walk.

After each team was sat down in order in the first inning, graduate student third baseman Zack Carinci gave the Spartans the lead in the top of the second with a two-out RBI single that scored Alonso and put CWRU ahead 1-0. CWRU increased its lead with a run-scoring fielder's choice from graduate student first baseman Dane Camphausen in the third, while a pair of errors later in the frame led to another run and gave the Spartans a 3-0 lead after three frames.

The Spartans added a run in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by sophomore designated hitter Tyler Stillson and then broke the game open with four runs in the fifth. Andreyko started the scoring in the frame with a one-out triple that scored Alonso. Three batters later, CWRU had loaded the bases before Anderson promptly emptied them with a triple, giving the Spartans an 8-0 advantage.

Chicago scored a pair of runs in the fifth to cut the Spartans' lead to six runs. The score remained 8-2 until the eighth when the Spartans added to their lead with an RBI single by Stillson, a run-scoring groundout from Camphausen, and a single from Andreyko that allowed Camphausen to cross the plate, extending the CWRU lead to nine.

CWRU outhit Chicago 12-5 in the game with Stillson, senior center fielder Nick Harms, and Carinci each collecting hits in the contest as well.

Chicago starter Jackson Bailey suffered the loss for the Maroons, dropping to 3-2 on the season.

The Spartans will continue UAA play next weekend when the team returns home to welcome New York University to Nobby's Ballpark in Cleveland. The four-game series is scheduled to begin on Friday, April 18 with a single game at 3:00 p.m.

Spartan Notes

• CWRU now stands at 7-2 against teams ranked in the D3baseball.com Top 25 at the time of the game this season.

• CWRU has won 16 of the last 19 games between the two teams and stands at 21-17-1 all-time against the Maroons.

• With a single and a double on Sunday, Anderson passed Chad Mullins' (2008-11) program record of 393 career total bases. Anderson now has 397 career bases after his effort on Sunday.

• The Spartans have now won nine consecutive UAA series with Sunday's win, dating back to the 2023 season.

• The NCAA released the first NPI rankings of the 2025 season earlier in the week, which are used to determine the at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. With 23 at-large bids available this year, teams that finish the season ranked among the top-23 teams in NPI should be guaranteed a spot in the postseason. CWRU entered this weekend ranked 12th in the NPI rankings while Chicago was 11th.