APPLETON, Wis. — The Lawrence University baseball team got a standout pitching performance to earn a split of a Midwest Conference doubleheader with Beloit College on Tuesday at Whiting Field.
Lawrence (3-11, 1-3 MWC) won the opener 4-1, and Beloit (11-7, 3-1) took the nightcap 16-3 and turned a triple play.
Atley Gay went the distance in the opener to lead the Vikings to the victory in the opener. He allowed six hits and no earned runs while striking out three and walking two.
Beloit led 1-0 heading to the bottom of the fourth, but Sam Kossow led off the bottom half of the inning with a single for the Vikings. Luke Zablocki then blasted his second homer of the season to put Lawrence up 2-1. Brandon Vamarasi followed with a double, and Dan Taylor belted his first homer of the season two batters later to put Lawrence up 4-1.
Zablocki finished 2-for-4 to pace the Lawrence offense.
Craig Vruwink went four inning and allowed all four runs to take the loss for the Bucs.
In the nightcap, Lawrence had built a 3-1 lead through five innings, when the Bucs tied it with a pair of runs in the sixth against Lawrence starter Phil Clark. The Bucs then got three more runs in the seventh on just two hits but got some help with a walk, hit batsman and an error to lead 6-3.
Beloit then blew the game open with 10 runs in the eighth to lead 16-3. Beloit had just five hits in the inning, but Lawrence pitchers issued five walks in the inning.
The Vikings started the bottom half of the inning with back-to-back singles when Joel Birch’s line drive was snared by second baseman Adrian Peil. He made a diving catch then flipped to second for one out, and the relay throw went back to first for a triple play.
Kossow and Zablocki both had two hits in the nightcap for Lawrence.
Jerrick Habecker went 2.1 innings of scoreless relief to pick up the win. Clark pitched seven innings and took the loss.