Baseball Sweeps Sabercats For Fourth Straight Victory

WAUWATOSA, Wis. (WLCSports.com) - Wisconsin Lutheran College continued its stretch of 11 games in 10 days with a non-conference doubleheader sweep over Maranatha Baptist on Thursday at Neumann Family Field by scores of 17-3 and 4-0.

The Warriors (8-19), who scored a season-high 17 runs in the opener, tallied at least one run in every inning against the Sabercats (0-23). WLC opened up a 4-0 lead after two innings highlighted by a two-run double in the first inning from freshman Colt Ratliff (Oxford, Ga.). Wisconsin Lutheran nearly hit for the cycle as a team in the third, as freshman Ethan Schoeps (Richmond, Ill.) singled, sophomore Oliver Lopeztello (Chicago, Ill.) tripled, and junior Elijah Shevey (Muskego, Wis.) doubled in runs for a 9-0 cushion. 

Senior Nick Fryhover (Castle Rock, Colo.) and sophomore Braylen Robertson (Irving, Texas) each had run-scoring singles for the Warriors in the fifth, and senior Jake Sillan (Castle Rock, Colo.) capped off the scoring in the sixth with a sac fly for the 17-3 victory. 

Lopeztello, Shevey, Fryhover, and Schoeps had two each hits for WLC in game one. Robertson drove in three runs, while Lopeztello, Ratliff, and Sillan collected two RBI each. Junior Tyler Danko (Milwaukee, Wis.) picked up his first win of the season on the mound by allowing just one hit over 5.0 innings while striking out four.

Senior Foster Engelhardt (North Richland Hills, Texas) started the scoring for Wisconsin Lutheran in the first inning of game two with a single that scored fellow senior Henry Strupp (Watertown, Wis.). Sophomore Xavier Tellez (San Antonio, Texas) doubled home sophomore Tim Frerking (Oconomowoc, Wis.) in the fourth, and Strupp's two-run single in the sixth that scored freshmen Payton Edlen (Gilberts, Ill.) and Jaxon Raabe (Mukwonago, Wis.) culminated the scoring.

The Warriors received one hit apiece from six different players. Strupp drove in two runs and four players scored a run. Freshman Cody Fredrick (Oconomowoc, Wis.) pitched a complete-game, one-hitter in his first collegiate start. He struckout six and did not walk a batter. 

WLC caps off its seven-game homestand on Sunday with a single non-conference game against Carroll (8-14) at 1 p.m. at Neumann Family Field. Live coverage links can be found at WLCSports.com.