PLYMOUTH, Wis. – The Lakeland University baseball team faced a tall task against nationally ranked Aurora University and dropped both ends of a doubleheader Saturday afternoon on the Muskies' home field.
The Spartans looked the part of their No. 10 ranking in NCAA Division III in the first game with a 21-6 victory. The Muskies were much more competitive in the second game in a 4-1 loss, dropping Lakeland to 6-12 overall this season and 1-5 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, with four of those losses coming to Aurora and Benedictine University teams both ranked in the top 15 nationally.
Tucker Gegenfurtner (
Fr.-Onalaska, Wis.) pitched well in the second game, going 7 1/3 innings and finishing allowing eight hits and four runs with six strikeouts. Aurora (14-5 overall, 4-2 NACC) scored single runs in four different innings, but led just 3-1 when Gegenfurtner departed with one out in the eighth.
The Muskies responded to an early Spartans run with a run of their own in the bottom of the first when
Nathan Walter (
Fr.-Watertown, Wis.) singled on the infield to score Gegenfurtner from third. Lakeland would miss opportunities to add on more, though, stranding two runners in the first and then leaving the bases loaded in the fourth.
Walter finished with two hits but Aurora pitchers Jack Fisher and Sam Harvey combined to limit the Muskies to six hits, including Harvey throwing four shutout innings of relief allowing just one hit while striking out five to earn the save.
The Spartans scored early and often in the first game, recording at least one run in all seven innings highlighted by three runs in each of the first two innings and then a nine-run fifth.
Lakeland generated 12 hits of its own, including
OakLee Spens (
Sr.-South Weber, Utah) and
Zak Keegan (
Jr.-Frankfort, Ill.) with three hits each.
Dylan Costello (
So.-New Berlin, Wis.) also drove in two runs and Spens scored twice.
The Muskies are back in action on the road Tuesday when they travel to face Dominican University for a doubleheader starting at noon in Schaumburg, Ill.