SCHAUMBURG, Ill. — The Lawrence University offense exploded in the opener, and the pitching staff allowed just one earned run in the nightcap as the Vikings swept a nonconference doubleheader from Dominican (Ill.) University on Wednesday.
Lawrence took the first game 14-7 and won the nightcap 4-3 at Boomers Stadium.
In the opener, the Vikings (10-17) pounded out 18 hits and jumped on the Stars early.
Tim Kinsella went 3-for-4 and drove in four runs, and Jake Gordon and Matthew Holliday both had three hits for the Vikings. Luke Zablocki, Kyle Duex and Davis Ogilvie all collected a pair of hits for Lawrence.
The Vikings scored four times in the first inning and added five more runs in the second. In the first, Zablocki had a two-run double and Holliday added a run-scoring single. Kinsella had a two-run single in the second and Gordon picked up an RBI single as the Vikings led 9-2.
Dominican (10-22) closed to 9-7, but the Vikings added a run in the third and three more in fifth, including two on Kinsella’s triple.
Freshman Zach Rabideau tossed 2.1 innings of one-hit relief to improve to 2-2 on the season. Philip Clark finished with three innings of one-hit relief to earn his second save of the season.
In the nightcap, four Lawrence pitchers combined to allow just one earned run. Holliday, a freshman from Hong Kong, allowed one hit over two innings to earn his first collegiate victory. Kelton Jenkins allowed an unearned run in the seventh but picked up his third save of the season.
Brandon Klar went 2-for-3, scored two runs and drove in another to pace the Vikings. Kinsella capped his big day by going 2-for-3 and driving in a run.
The Vikings scored in the top of the first when Klar led off the game with a single and later scored on Kinsella’s sacrifice fly. The Stars tied it with a run in the second, but Lawrence took the lead for good in the fifth when Klar was hit by a pitch and later scored on Zablocki’s ground out.
The Vikings stretched the lead to 4-1 with a pair of unearned runs in the sixth. The two-out rally started with Joel Birch’s single, and Ogilvie then reached on an error. Klar singled to score Birch, and Ogilvie came around to score on the play after a bad throw.
Dominican scored an unearned run in the sixth and picked up another in the seventh before Jenkins got Milne Rojek to ground out with the tying run at second to end the game.