MEQUON, Wis. – Runs were hard to come by for the Lakeland University baseball team as Concordia University Wisconsin took a pair of low-scoring games for a doubleheader sweep Friday afternoon at Kapco Park.
The Falcons defeated the Muskies 5-2 and 2-0 in a pair of Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference games moved up one day from Saturday to Friday in order to beat predicted rain showers on Saturday. Two completely different contests for Lakeland both ended with the same result, and the Muskies dropped to 16-16 overall and 6-12 in conference games.
The Muskies will rue not taking advantage of ample opportunities in the first game, when they outhit Concordia 15-8.
Jack Banks (
Sr.-Mountain View, Calif.),
Hunter Frisk (
Jr.-Manteca, Calif.) and
Nathan Hemmerling (
Jr.-Riverside, Calif.) all posted three hits each but Lakeland stranded a staggering 17 runners, including two or more in seven different innings and at least one runner in every frame.
The Muskies did score a run in the second, answering two Falcons runs in the first with an RBI double by Hemmerling to score
Austin Palmer (
Oro Valley, Ariz.). A number of opportunities would go by the wayside the rest of the way, though, with only a single by
Dylan Penny (
Sr.-River Falls, Wis.) to drive in a in the ninth getting Lakeland on the board again. The Muskies stranded at least one runner in every inning and at least two in every inning from the fourth on, and the game ended with the bases loaded and the go-ahead run at the plate before a fly out to end the game.
While the Muskies struggled to manufacture runs, Concordia (15-18 overall, 9-8 NACC) would score a single run in the third and again added one more in both the sixth and seventh innings.
Brody Fay (Fr.-Surprise, Ariz.) took the loss for Lakeland, throwing 7 1/3 innings and allowing seven hits and five runs (four earned ) with six strikeouts and four walks.
Opportunities were much scarcer in the second game, as
Peyton Domangue (
So.-Thibodaux, La.) and CUW's Ryan Green engaged in a pitching duel where the two teams combined for just nine hits between them in a game played in a brisk one hour, 55 minutes. Green got the better of it, throwing a complete game four-hit shutout and never letting a runner get past second base in nine innings.
Domangue was almost as good, allowing just five hits and two runs (one earned) with three strikeouts in a complete game, but the Falcons reached for single runs in both the third and fourth for the game's only runs. Concordia's Kyle Kosobucki singled to drive in an unearned run in the third to open the scoring, and Tristan Largent also drove in a run in the fourth with a fielder's choice to score Sean Tillmon.
The Muskies look to get back on track Sunday when they host Milwaukee School of Engineering for a doubleheader beginning at noon.
