With its season winding down, the men’s club baseball team traveled to Chicago last weekend in hopes of knocking off Columbia College (Ill.) and Loyola University (Ill.) in a pair of doubleheaders.

“We went down with the conference tournament in mind,” senior co-captain Ryan Conant said. “We wanted to make a statement to all the other teams by winning the last four games in our conference schedule.”

Eau Claire made its weekend stay in Chicago worthwhile as it swept both of its opponents, going 4-0 for the weekend and claiming the third seed for this weekend’s conference tournament at Carson Park.

Game one was tight throughout with Eau Claire battling back to come out on top, 10-9. Senior Jeff Moessner pitched the opening two innings and gave up four earned runs off six hits. Junior Jay Hebert recorded the win, giving up six hits and striking out three in five innings.

Senior Lars Hickey batted 4-for-4 and Conant went 2-for-3 and stole three bases. Junior Alex Young went 1-for-3, as he hit a home run and scored two runners.

Eau Claire was all offense in the second game. It scored 19 runs in the second game to win by the 10-run rule, 19-9.

Young hit a perfect 4-for-4 and scored four times. Senior co-captain Todd Bennett went 2-for-2 and scored three runners. Conant stayed hot, going 3-for-4, including a double, triple and seven RBIs. Sophomore Curt Hartfiel went 3-for-4 with a double.

“Our players stayed focused all weekend and made it happen,” Bennett said. “Chicago is a great place to play ball and coming out with the wins makes it all the better.”

Conant went 2-for-2 and hit his second home run of the weekend in Sunday’s first game against Loyola as Eau Claire went on to win 7-2.

Senior Andy Woerful pitched the complete game in the opener, giving up only one earned run off eight hits. Woerful also struck out six batters and walked four.

Eau Claire produced double-digit runs for the third time of the weekend to hold off Loyola in the second game of the doubleheader, 10-2.

Young and Bennett each went 2-for-2 and Conant 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Senior Bill Severson hit a home run, going 1-for-2 with two RBIs.

“With the conference tournament coming up, we had to make a strong close to our conference schedule,” senior co-captain Colin Clark said. “We came out and did that.”

Click here for the Wisconsin-Illinois Baseball Conference Tournament schedule.

Click here for baseball club player stats.