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Box Score 2 MILWAUKEE - The Wisconsin Lutheran College baseball team blasted Maranatha Baptist Bible College in its final conference games of the season Saturday at Neumann Family Field, winning 13-0 and 23-0 to clinch a spot in the six-team 2013 Northern Athletics Conference Tournament. The offensive barrage, along with a little help from a Concordia University Wisconsin sweep over Marian University, punched the Warriors a ticket to their first-ever NAC Tournament.
The bottom of the first inning of the opener set the tone for how the day would go as WLC jumped out to a 4-0 lead, highlighted by a Brett Youngbeck (Brown Deer, Wis./Brown Deer) two-run double. In the bottom of the fourth, it was Aaron Roeseler's (Watertown, Wis./Luther Preparatory) turn for a two-run hit, part of a five-run outburst that put the Warriors up 9-0.
WLC pushed four more runs across in the sixth to push its lead to double-digits at 13-0. StarterJaime Paumen (Glencoe, Minn./Silver-Lake) made quick work of the Crusaders in the top of the seventh to end the game in seven innings.
Paumen was masterful on the mound, fanning 13 batters and allowing a single hit with no walks in his seven-inning win. Roeseler drove in four runs and scored twice on 3-for-4 hitting. Youngbeck finished 1-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored, while Garrick Day (Elk Mound, Wis./Elk Mound) came around to score three times.
Derek Funkhouser took the loss despite that only three of his 13 runs allowed were earned. Caleb Rost mustered the only hit of the day for Maranatha.
The Warriors didn't lose a beat in game two, scoring three times in the bottom of the first, led by Sam Mattheis' (Rosendale, Wis./Laconia) two-run single. WLC's bats simply exploded in the bottom of the second, scoring 10 runs to match its offensive production from game one.
The Warriors were thwarted in their quest for more runs in the bottom of the third, stranding three runners, but more than made up for that in the fourth, scoring four times for a 17-0 advantage.
On an already historic day, WLC scored six more times in the sixth to extend its lead to 23-0 and tie a program record for runs scored in a game.
Josh Ruppel (Belgium, Wis./Cedar Grove-Belgium) cruised to the easy win, striking out eight and scattering five hits in the 7.0 inning shutout victory. Every Warriors starter pounded out at least one hit, with 13 players driving in at least one run.
Garett Ordway let in 13 runs in 1.2 innings to take the loss. The Crusaders' (2-27, 0-22 NAC) five hits came off the bats of five different players.
WLC (17-14, 11-11 NAC) takes a break from conference play for its final game of the regular season against UW-Milwaukee (21-18) Monday at Henry Aaron Field at 3 p.m. The NAC Tournament will begins Thursday at Kapco Park in Mequon.
