Freshman pitcher Drew Doares tossed a shutout to lead the Lawrence University baseball team to a Midwest Conference doubleheader split with Beloit College on Saturday at Whiting Field.
The Vikings (11-13, 3-3 MWC) won the opener 1-0, and Beloit (14-15, 6-4) hung on for a 4-2 win in the nightcap.
Doares was simply outstanding for Lawrence in the opener. He picked up his first career shutout and allowed only five hits. He struck out four and walked three. It was the first 1-0 shutout by a Lawrence pitcher since Aaron Leitner beat Grinnell 1-0 on March 22, 2009, but that was a seven-inning contest.
Eric Bohling paced Lawrence’s 10-hit attack by going 3-for-4 and driving in the game’s only run. Gabe Henriques and Joel Birch both went 2-for-4 for the Vikings.
Lawrence scored the game’s only run in the bottom of the first inning. Davide Harris led off the game with a double and went to third on Henriques’ groundout. Bohling followed with a run-scoring single and the Vikings led 1-0.
Beloit did not have a runner reach third base in the game, but the Bucs did threaten in the ninth after Emory Nelms had a two-out double. After a walk, Doares got Will Mack to fly out to end the game.
Alex Norman went the distance for Beloit and took the loss.
In the nightcap, the Vikings rallied late but came up short. Grant Henrickson went 8 1/3 innings to get the win, and Al Loth got the final two outs to pick up the save.
Kelton Jenkins pitched well for Lawrence and took the loss after six innings of work.
Sam Kossow, Harris and Birch all had two hits for the Vikings, and Kossow smacked his first career homer.
Beloit led 4-0 heading to the eighth, but Lawrence loaded the bases on singes from Harris, Bohling and Birch. Phil Wisniewski grounded into a fielder’s choice to score Harris and trim the lead to 4-1. Henrickson then got Jake Gordon to ground into another fielder’s choice to end the inning.
Lawrence cut the lead to 4-2 when Kossow blasted a one-out solo homer in the ninth. Loth came on in relief and got Tanner DeBettencourt to ground out for the second out of the inning. Loth then walked Harris and Henriques, but he struck out Bohling to end the game.
Lawrence wraps up the four-game series with a doubleheader at Beloit on Sunday.