The Bees rode the arms of Connor Bird, Jack Kerpan, Aidan Stratton and Dominic Guzman to sweep a CCAC-opening doubleheader from Saint Xavier 5-4 and 1-0 at Black Hawk College Saturday afternoon.

On a chilly afternoon in Moline, Ill., Bird got the win in the opener, allowing six hits and just two earned runs over 5 1/3 innings. He then gave way to Kerpan, who struck out four while allowing a single run over 2 2/3 innings. Stratton worked out of trouble in his inning of work to earn the save.

St. Ambrose (7-7, 2-0 CCAC) struck early and built a big lead. took advantage of an error to push across three unearned runs in the second. Michael Rago singled in Matthew McBrien before Jake Pauley ripped a two-run double over the left fielder's head.

Peter Mitchell lined a solo home run down the left-field line in the third before Rago upped the lead to 5-0 with another RBI single in the fourth.

Saint Xavier (9-7, 0-2 CCAC) slowly climbed back into the game with two runs in the fifth and another in the eight.

Stratton entered to start the ninth with a 5-3 lead and promptly walked the first two hitters he faced. A balk advanced both runners into scoring position before Stratton settled down. He got a big strikeout before a ground out scored a run and moved the potential tying run to third. But Stratton closed it out by inducing a weak line-out to Mason Heitzler at short.

Pauley, Mitchell, McBrien and Rago each had two hits. Bryce Vorwald collected the other SAU hit.

Then Guzman dominated the second game. He allowed five hits and two walks while strikeout out eight in the complete-game seven-inning win.

The Bees managed just five hits themselves, two coming off the bat of McBrien. It was his hit leading off the bottom of the fifth that ultimately got St. Ambrose on the board. With two outs, Rago reached on an infield single to put two on. Pauley followed with a blooper into short center that scored McBrien with the game's only run.

After hitting the first batter of the ninth, Guzman retired the next three hitters he faced, punctuating the win with his eighth strikeout to close the game.

The two teams will head to Chicago, Ill., to wrap up their four-game series Sunday.