BELOIT, Wis. — The Beloit College baseball team took a pair of close games from Lawrence University on Saturday in the opening Midwest Conference doubleheader of the season.
The Bucs (10-6, 2-0 MWC) took the opener 4-1 and picked up a 5-3 victory in the nightcap.
In the opener, Alex Norman and Andrew Wilt locked up in a pitcher’s duel. Norman allowed only five hits while striking out four and walking two to earn the win. Wilt allowed 10 hits, struck out one and walked three.
Beloit took a 1-0 lead in the third and got a big two-run triple from Mike Ross in the sixth to build a 3-0 lead. Beloit added another run in the seventh.
Lawrence (2-15, 0-2) broke up the shutout in the eighth when Phil Wisniewski doubled and later scored on Luke Barthelmess’ sacrifice fly. Wisniewski went 2-for-3 to pace the Vikings.
In the nightcap, Lawrence limited the Bucs to only five hits, but Beloit took advantage of four errors, four walks and four hit batsman.
Lawrence took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third when Michael Baldino and Barthelmess singled and both scored on an outfield error.
The Bucs tied it in the bottom half of the inning when a walk and hit batsman put a pair of runners aboard. Jake Tresemer then delivered a two-run double to tie the game at 2-2.
Beloit added a run in the third and then scored two more times in the sixth without a hit. A walk, two errors and two hits batsmen helped give Beloit a 5-2 lead.
Lawrence trimmed the lead to 5-3 when Wisniewski singled, moved to third on Sam Kossow’s single and scored on a sacrifice fly.
The Vikings had runners at second and third in the ninth, but Baldino struck out and Barthelmess flied out to end the game.
Mike Kovach pitched seven innings to get the win, and Aaron Bushur picked up the save. Chad Skaer went 5.2 innings and took the loss.
Beloit travels to Lawrence on Sunday to finish the four-game series.