JACKSONVILLE, Ill. — The Elmhurst College baseball team scored four runs in the first inning Saturday and hung on for a 6-3 nonconference victory over Lawrence University.
Nick Drago allowed two runs and five hits over seven innings to pick up the win. He struck out six and walked two. Karson Thomas worked the final two innings to pick up the save.
Mike Brady took the loss for Lawrence (0-2) in his first collegiate start. Zach Rabideau pitched 4.1 innings of one-hit relief for the Vikings.
Elmhurst jumped on the Vikings in the first inning and scored four times on just one hit as Lawrence made two errors, had a hit batsman and issued a bases-loaded walk.
The Vikings started the bottom of the first with a single from Nolan Spencer and later loaded the bases. Spencer scored on a wild pitch, and Rudy Mueller-Schrader singled to score Travis Weber and trim the lead to 4-2.
The Bluejays added single runs in the fourth and fifth to go up 6-2, and the Vikings had trouble pushing another run across. Lawrence had scoring chances in the second, third, fifth and seventh before finally scoring in the eighth.
Mueller-Schrader was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to trim the lead to 6-3, but Ethan Jones flied out to end the threat.
Spencer went 2-for-5, and Mueller-Schrader drove in a pair of runs for Lawrence.