APPLETON, Wis. — The Carroll University baseball team got a great pitching performance in game one and then won a nail-biter in the nightcap to sweep a Midwest Conference doubleheader from Lawrence University on Sunday.
Carroll won the first game 15-2, and the Pioneers took the second game 5-3 at Whiting Field.
In the opener, Carroll starter Kevin Dineen went the distance to pick up the win. He allowed only four hits, struck out three and walked two. Lawrence (8-17, 2-10 MWC) got its only two runs of the game on Luke Zablocki’s two-run double in the fifth inning.
Clayton Schmitt, Alex Olson and Joe Huss all had three hits and drove in two runs apiece as the Pioneers (13-15, 6-2) pounded out 16 hits.
In the nightcap, Carroll broke a 3-3 tie with a pair of runs in the top of the ninth inning. Schmitt got that rally started with a one-out double, and Dylan Grove was then hit by a pitch.
The runners took off on a passed ball, but the throw to third was off-target and went into left field. Schmitt scored on the play, and the throw home got away from catcher Travis Weber, allowing Grove to move to third. He then scored on Tyler Schovanec’s single for a 5-3 lead.
Schovanec finished 3-for-4 and drove in a pair of runs.
Jake Mills got a two-out single in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate, but Zach Wiseman got Brandon Klar to ground out to end the game. Wiseman pitched 1.2 innings of relief for the win.
Jake Gordon went 3-for-4 with a solo homer in the nightcap for Lawrence. Gordon is now just seven hits shy of breaking Lawrence’s career hits record. Klar led off the bottom of the first with a solo homer, and Matthew Holliday had a pair of hits.
Klar’s homer gave Lawrence a 1-0 lead, but Olson homered in the second to tie it. Schovanec’s RBI single in the third gave the Pioneers a 2-1 lead, but Lawrence tied it on Gordon’s solo homer in the fifth.
Carroll took the lead back with a run in the top of the eighth, but Gordon doubled and then scored on Holliday’s single in the bottom half of the inning to tie it at 3-3.