PLYMOUTH, Wis. – The Lakeland University baseball team ran into a roadblock in its chase for a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference North Division crown with a pair of losses to Wisconsin Lutheran College Sunday afternoon at home.

The Muskies rallied three times from one-run deficits in the first game but couldn't close the deal in a 5-3, 11-inning loss. A two-home run game from Carter Raabe fueled a potent Warrior offense in the second game as Wisconsin Lutheran prevailed 15-7 for the doubleheader sweep.

The Warriors finished winning three of four games in the teams' weekend series. The losses dropped the Muskies (11-11 overall, 7-5 NACC North) behind Marian University and into a tie for second with Milwaukee School of Engineering in the NACC North Division.

In a first game that was close throughout with the teams trading runs three times including in the 10th inning, Wisconsin Lutheran (11-20 overall, 4-8 NACC North) scored the deciding runs in the 11th when Cooper Pease ripped a two-out triple to score a pair of runs.

The teams had previously scored single runs each in the first and third innings, and after WLC took the lead in the top of the 10th the Muskies tied it again. Jack Banks (Sr.-Mountain View, Calif.) hit a bases-loaded single that brought home Kaylab Owings (Fr.-Bagdad, Ariz.), but OakLee Spens (Fr.-Burbank, Calif.) was cut down at home plate trying to score to keep the game tied at 3-3.

The opener was a pitchers' duel most of the way between Banks and Wisconsin Lutheran starter Andrew Muffler. In his first pitching action of the season, Banks went 9 1/3 innings, allowing 10 hits including just four after the third inning while also striking out five. Muffler also pitched seven innings and allowed just four hits and two earned runs, one coming after hitting Nathan Hemmerling (So.-Riverside, Calif.) with the bases loaded in the first inning.

Game two was markedly different as the two teams combined for 22 runs, 27 hits and 11 errors. The Warriors scored in each of the first four innings, including four in the second and five more in the fourth to jump out to a 12-2 lead. Raabe homered in both the second and fourth innings and Foster Englehardt also added a home run in the fourth.

Lakeland scored three runs in the fifth, including a two-run single by Hemmerling and an RBI single by Kejuan Harvey (Fr.-Elgin, Ill.), and also added two in the seventh on a two-run single by Owings to cut the deficit to 13-7, but that was as close as the Muskies would get.

Lakeland struggled at the plate all day with just five hits in the first game and eight in the second. Hemmerling finished with three hits and four RBIs over the two games. Spens and Kellen Hodges (Fr.-Littleton, Colo.) each added doubles in the second game, while Spens, Owings and Collin Schutz (Jr.-Saint Amant, La.) all added stolen bases in the first game.

Alex Mikula (Fr.-Orland Park, Ill.) started the second game but allowed seven runs (five earned) in 2 1/3 innings, while Dylan Penny (Jr.-River Falls, Wis.), Schutz, and Steven Lozano (Jr.-Anaheim, Calif.) all pitched in relief. Schutz threw five innings and allowed six hits and three runs (one earned), while Lozano made his first collegiate pitching appearance and struck out one and allowed one unearned run in two-thirds of an inning to close the game.

Lakeland hosts Maranatha Baptist in a non-conference doubleheader on Thursday, with game one starting at 1 p.m.