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Box Score 2 MILWAUKEE - The Wisconsin Lutheran College baseball team dropped a pair of pivotal Northern Athletics Conference games against Rockford College on Saturday at Neumann Family Field. The Regents won the opener, 8-5, before coming away with a 4-3 game two win in 10 innings.
In game one, Rockford got hot to start things off, scoring twice in the first and three times in the second for a 5-0 cushion. In the third, Garrick Day (Elk Mound, Wis./Elk Mound) got the Warriors' scoring started with an RBI groundout that plated Brandon Mantz (West Bend, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran). Aaron Roeseler (Watertown, Wis./Luther Preparatory) later grounded out to bring home Connor Vredeveld (Waterloo, Wis./Lakeside Lutheran).
The Regents got one of those runs back in the fifth to extend their lead to 6-2. In the seventh, Day drew a walk with the bases loaded to bring in Mitch Skarban (Appleton, Wis./Fox Valley Lutheran). Rockford countered in the eighth and ninth innings with single runs to push its lead to 8-3.
The Warriors began to rally in the last of the ninth by scoring twice, but a five-run deficit proved too much to overcome as WLC fell 8-5.
Josh Ruppel (Belgium, Wis./Cedar Grove-Belgium) took the loss, letting in four earned runs in 3.0 innings. Day drove in three runs despite not registering a hit, while Skarban scored twice on 2-for-4 hitting and Vredeveld finished 1-for-3 with an RBI and run scored.
Kaleb Rich recorded the win, striking out six batters over 6.2 innings, and allowing three earned runs on seven hits. Daryn Streed finished 3-for-5 with two RBIs, while Cole Logemann scored three times.
In game two, it was the Warriors who got the scoring started to gain an early lead. In the first,Sam Mattheis (Rosendale, Wis./Laconia) singled home Day, and Brett Youngbeck (Brown Deer, Wis./Brown Deer) stole home to put WLC's lead at 2-0. Rockford scored two runs of its own in the fourth to tie the game at 2-2.
The game remained tied until the sixth when Tyler Schoen (Marion, Wis./Marion) singled home Mattheis to retake the lead at 3-2.
The Regents managed to get a single run across in the ninth, but no further damage was done as three runners were stranded. In extra innings, Rockford scored the go-ahead run in the 10th to overtake the Warriors for a 4-3 lead. In the last of the 10th, WLC put two runners on with just one out, but couldn't find a way to get a run in and fell victim to a 4-3 defeat.
Jaime Paumen (Glencoe, Minn./Silver-Lake) had a solid start, scattering four hits over 9.0 innings while allowing just a single earned run, and striking out seven. Mattheis suffered the defeat, pitching 1.0 inning and giving up an unearned run. At the plate, Mattheis was 2-for-5 with an RBI and run scored.
Zac Wolf picked up the win for Rockford (15-17, 13-5 NAC), tossing 1.2 scoreless innings of relief. Matt Grimes finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored.
WLC (14-13, 8-10 NAC) travels to Lisle, Ill., on Sunday for its final conference road games of the season and a doubleheader against Benedictine University (26-7, 14-4 NAC). The games will take place at the Lisle-BenU Sports Complex and are scheduled to start at 2 p.m. BenU will provide both live stats and live video for both games and the links can be found atwww.wlcsports.com.
