Eric Bohling’s dramatic two-run double in the bottom of the ninth inning rallied the Lawrence University baseball team to a Midwest Conference doubleheader split with Ripon College on Thursday at Whiting Field.
Bohling’s heroics gave Lawrence (3-11, 1-1 MWC) a 5-4 win in the nightcap, and Ripon (9-7, 1-1) posted an 18-5 victory in the opener.
Bohling went 4-for-5 and drove in four runs in the nightcap. Gabe Henriques went 2-for-4 and scored two runs for the Vikings.
Alex Brewer got the final two outs in the ninth to improve to 2-0 on the season. Patrick Van Daalwyk went three innings and took the loss.
Bohling had a run-scoring single and Sam Kossow picked up a sacrifice fly to give Lawrence a 2-0 lead in the first. Ripon tied it with two runs in the third and then grabbed a 4-2 lead with a pair of runs in the fifth.
Lawrence trimmed the lead to 4-3 with a run in the seventh. Bohling dropped in a single down the right field line to scoring Jake Gordon to cut the Ripon lead to one.
The score stayed that way when Davide Harris walked and Henriques followed with a double to put runners at second and third to start the bottom of the ninth inning. Ripon brought in Tom Fish to face Bohling, who belted a double into the right-center field gap that scored both runners and won the game.
Freshman Kelton Jenkins made the start for Lawrence and turned in a fine effort. He went seven innings, allowed seven hits, struck out two and walked one.
In the opener, Ripon broke open a tie game with 10 runs over the fifth and sixth innings.
Ryan Paul went 4-for-4, hit a grand slam in the ninth inning and finished with seven runs batted in to pace Ripon’s 16-hit attack. Tom Sawyer went 3-for-3, scored five times and drove in three runs.
Steven Blader went eight innings, allowed nine hits, struck out seven and walked two to earn the victory. Andrew Doares went 4 1/3 innings and took the loss for the Vikings.
Henriques, Brewer and Phil Wisniewski all had two hits for the Vikings, and Brewer drove in a pair of runs.
The game was tied 2-2 when Ripon scored six times in the fifth with Sawyer picking up a two-run double in the inning. The Red Hawks then added four more runs in the sixth to go up 12-2. Paul had a two-run double in that inning.
Ripon then put the finishing touches on the win when Paul hit a grand slam in the four-run ninth.