PLYMOUTH, Wis. – The Lakeland University baseball team got off to a slow start to its day but came alive in the second game and split a home doubleheader with Concordia University Wisconsin on Saturday to open the teams' four-game weekend series.

The Falcons won the first game 8-5 but the Muskies came back for a 15-10 win in the second to stay ahead of Concordia in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference North Division standings. Lakeland is 8-6 in division play while CUW is 7-7 heading into the teams' doubleheader Sunday afternoon in Mequon.

An eventful day included a sudden heat wave into the warmest temperatures of the year, high winds gusting to nearly 50 miles per hour, and festivities from Lakeland's 159th commencement ceremonies incorporated into the twinbill. Five Lakeland baseball seniors were among 690 Lakeland students awarded degrees on Saturday, including a seniors walking in their graduation ceremonies immediately before or after playing, while three more were part of a ceremony between games that included Lakeland President Beth Borgen presenting diploma covers individually to players.

The Muskies (14-12 overall) got off to a slow start in the first game, which started under a typical spring-like 56 degrees and cloudy skies, but the hosts came alive as temps soared into the upper 80s in the second game. Lakeland piled up 18 hits in the nightcap and rebounded from an early 3-0 deficit to score 12 runs over four innings.

The Muskies scored four times in the second and added five more in the fourth with one clutch hit after another. Kaylab Owings (Fr.-Bagdad, Ariz.), Hunter Frisk (So.-Manteca, Calif.) and Collin Schutz (Sr.-Saint Amant, La.) all delivered two-run singles, and a run-scoring single by Kellen Hodges (Fr.-Littleton, Colo.) gave Lakeland a comfortable 12-5 lead in the fifth inning.

Concordia (17-13 overall) would still create some nervous moments, chipping away with three runs in the sixth and two in the eighth to close within 12-10. The Muskies would add some insurance in the bottom of the eighth, scoring three times with OakLee Spens (Fr.-Burbank, Calif.) singling to score Schutz and Frisk capping a huge day with a run-scoring single on a play that would eventually score two after a CUW throwing error.

Jack Banks (Sr.-Mountain View, Calif.) toughed out 5 1/3 innings to get his first win of the season despite the Falcons getting three balls up in the jet stream of heavy winds for home runs. Frisk and Nathan Hemmerling (So.-Riverside, Calif.) both had four-hit games, with Frisk also driving in four runs, and Spens added three hits, three runs scored and two runs batted in.

Concordia won the opener by scoring three times in the first inning off Hemmerling and then answering after the Muskies briefly closed back within a run in the sixth. Owings opened the bottom of the sixth inning with a single and Hemmerling followed with a blast to straight away center field for his sixth home run of the season, cutting CUW's lead to 3-2.

Lakeland was otherwise quiet for the first eight innings, and the Falcons answered the brief surge with a two-run homer of their own in the top of the next inning, as Kyle Kosubucki lifted a ball into the air that carried over the right field wall in front of the scoreboard for a 5-2 lead. Concordia added three more in the ninth, runs that came in handy when the Muskies put together a last-ditch rally, with Frisk singling to score Owings and Banks reaching a sky-high infield pop-up that a big wind gust blew out of catcher Kosubucki's reach to drop and allow Spens and Mason Valenstein (So.-Sheboygan, Wis.) to score.

Frisk was 3-for-5 in the first game and in all finished the day 7-for-10. Hemmerling pitched three innings before leaving, while Tyler Penny (Fr.-River Falls, Wis.) came on and threw 5 2/3 innings in relief, allowing nine hits and five runs while striking out four.

Steven Lozano (Sr.-Anaheim, Calif.) also pitched in relief in the opener, getting the last out before leaving for the undergraduate graduation ceremony. Gio Ramirez (Sr.-Chicago, Ill.) also pitched two-thirds of an inning in the second game, getting back into uniform and playing immediately after walking in the undergrad ceremony.