The Lakeland College baseball team did something no team has done before this year, becoming the first team to break through against one of the top pitchers in NCAA Division III in a 9-5 win over Rockford University in the first game of their doubleheader Saturday afternoon.
Rockford pitcher Michael Murray came into Saturday with a 6-0 record and a 0.61 earned run average, numbers that ranked him among the national leaders in wins and ERA. The Muskies had no trouble against Murray, though, roughing him up for 14 hits and nine runs in 5 2/3 innings in the first game of the doubleheader.
Lakeland (7-24 overall, 3-11 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference) hit the ball as effectively as it has all season and in all finished with 16 hits in the first game.
Bryce Skelton (
Jr.-Delavan, Wis.) and
Jared Rear (
Jr.-Belleville, Wis.) had three hits each, four others had two hits apiece and Rear also added four RBIs.
The Muskies scored a run in the first and then responded to a pair of Rockford runs in the third with four of their own in the bottom of the inning. Five consecutive singles to start the inning were part of seven hits in the frame as nine batters went to the plate against Murray.
Lakeland would eventually chase him from the game in the sixth inning when Rear singled through the left side to score
Luke Bacci (
Jr.-Grayslake, Ill.).
Brady Callahan (
Sr.-Sheboygan, Wis.) greeted reliever David Camacho with an RBI single past the shortstop to drive in
A.J. Dollinger (
Sr.-Ashwaubenon, Wis.) and give the Muskies an 8-3 lead that would prove to be enough in the opener.
Luke Mandich (
Jr.-Green Bay, Wis.) bested Murray, going seven-plus innings and allowing nine hits and five runs (four earned) with six strikeouts in earning his third win of the season.
Luke Kelly (
Jr.-Marinette, Wis.) came on in relief and pitched two scoreless innings to close out the game.
Lakeland was unable to complete the doubleheader sweep, as the Camacho started the second game and pitched a complete game four-hit shutout in a 3-0 victory.
The opportunistic offense that marked the Muskies' first game was silenced in the second. Lakeland's top five hitters went 0-for-19 against Camacho, who outdueled
Ryan Boettcher (
Sr.-Bonduel, Wis.) in a game that breezed by in 1 hour, 39 minutes.
The Regents scored the only run they would need in the first inning on an RBI single by Connor McHugh. Insurance runs were added in the sixth and eighth innings, both times on run-scoring hits by catcher Eric Gnippe.
Boettcher pitched a complete game and allowed 13 hits but just three runs while striking out a career-high nine batters. Callahan and
Kyle Delahaut (
Jr.-Green Bay, Wis.) were two of the four to hit safely in the second game and joined Rear and Skelton as Muskies who finished with three hits on the day.
The Muskies step out of conference next to face Maranatha Baptist University in a doubleheader Monday afternoon.
