HAMPTON, Va. - The Illinois Tech baseball team advanced to the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) National Championship finals but lost to the host Apprentice School to be eliminated. This was an all time historic season not just for the baseball program but for any Illinois Tech sport team. And came to an end just short of greatness but still is the best finish by a Hawks team ever with the National Runner-Up finish.

Game 1

IIT had gotten to the title game with very strong pitching and defense and those two aspect of the game could not get another win on Saturday. The Hawks pitchers allowed 9 walks and the IIT defense committed 3 very costly error and were never able to close the gap after the 3^rd inning when it ended 5-4 in favor of Apprentice. "We could not get the big 3^rd out of the inning for the majority of the day and you have to tip your cap to the Apprentice offense because they hit the fastball very well today and when we made mistake pitches they took advantage." Said Coach Scott Marks after the game.

Seven pitchers combined in the game all 2 innings or less. Elliot Chibe started and made a great effort to keep the opponent to just one run in the first inning. Cory Winiecki (3-3) went the next 1.1 innings and notched the loss. Jan Timpe, Andrew Gustafson, William Sierzega, Conner Wiebell, and Zdenek Jaks threw in respectively the rest of the way.

The offense did everything it could to keep up with the Builders scoring  in the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th innings but it just wasn't enough today. Multi-hit games from Austin Boos (3 hits), Michael Malfeo (2 hits), and Alex Babusci (2 hits) kept the Hawks going. Malfeo accounted for half of the IIT run total as he hit (2) home runs in just the first game. In the bottom of the 1^st inning he hit a high towering fly ball which was a two run shot and the other came in the 6^th inning on a no doubter "if it's fair it's gone" 3 run shot that just snuck inside the left field foul pole. To give him 5 runs batted in with 3 runs scored. Brian Colon-Rodriguez, Kyle Bumpass, Andrew Lamkin, Ryan Fitzpatrick each had one hit and accounted for the remaining of the offense.

Game 2

Game two brought the loser goes home second Championship game on Saturday but did not start how Illinois Tech had imagined as the Hawks defense committed 3 errors in the top of the first as the visitor Apprentice School plated 5 runs. Starting pitcher Kyle Bumpass (5-2) was tabbed with the loss just two days after he pitched the game of his career against the very same Apprentice lineup. But to the credit of Bumpass he went 5.2 innings spreading 9 hits while allowing 7 runs but only (3 earned) as Michael Malfeo got IIT out of the 6^th inning jam and went the final 3.1 innings with 3 runs, on 5 hits and 4 strikeouts. Malfeo left it all out there on the field in his final collegiate game.

Austin Boos (double), Michael Malfeo (double) and pinch hitter Matthew Bishop (single) all had one hit with Malfeo scoring the lone Tech run. Brian Colon-Rodriguez and Darwin Argumedo each had two hits in the final game with Colon notching that only run batted in.

This was a bitter sweet ending to the so very memorable season for the Hawks. We say good bye to seven seniors at the conclusion. Outfielders: Ryan Fitzpatrick, Alex Babusci and William Cronin. Pitchers: Andrew Gustafson and Matthew Bishop. Catcher: Darwin Argumedo. And of course the 2-time team MVP (2013 & 2015), Excelence in Sport (2014), CCAC All-Conference (2013) and 1^st team All-American (2015) Infielder/Pitcher/Catcher Michael Malfeo.