PLYMOUTH, Wis. – Mikey Hernandez (Jr.-Lennox, Calif.) and Jordan Domingue (Jr.-Victorville, Calif.) both hit home runs but St. Norbert College won the home run battle for the day and the Lakeland University baseball team fell twice Monday afternoon in a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference doubleheader.

The Green Knights held on to win the first game 10-7 and then won the second half of the twinbill 11-5, a game called after six innings due to rain. St. Norbert won the battle for position in the NACC standings and improved to 5-9 in league play (15-13 overall), while the Muskies dropped to 3-11 in conference and 10-20 overall.

On a day that started out hot and sunny before turning cloudy and eventually wet late in the afternoon, the gopher ball was Lakeland's undoing as the Green Knights hit seven home runs on the day. Five came in the second game, when the Muskies saw an early 4-1 lead slip away as SNC scored eight of its 11 runs on homers.

Lakeland held leads in both games, including the opener after rallying from a 4-0 deficit in the first inning. Hernandez hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the first to get the Muskies on the board, and Bryce Backus (So.-Kenosha, Wis.) and Logan South (So.-Oswego, Ill.) both delivered two-out singles to score runs and put the hosts ahead 5-4 in the third inning.

St. Norbert answered with two runs in both the fourth, fifth and eighth innings before Lakeland got back within three after Chris Day (Sr.-Victorville, Calif.) hit a two-run double in the eighth to make it 10-7. The Muskies would leave the bases loaded in the eighth, though, and did the same in the ninth. A budding rally started with J.T. Cortinas (Jr.-Chino Hills, Calif.) reaching on an error and Backus and Hayden Smith (Jr.-South Range, Wis.) both working their way aboard on walks, but a pair of strikeouts looking and a foul out ended the game.

Backus and Chris Finn (Jr.-Mapleton, Ill.) both had two hits each and Lakeland also received nine walks from St. Norbert pitchers, but the Muskies stranded 13 runners in the game. Jonathan Maldonado (Jr.-La Puente, Calif.) took the loss, allowing nine hits and six runs (four earned) with three strikeouts in 3 2/3 innings.

Lakeland started fast in the second game, scoring four times in the bottom of the first inning to take a 4-1 lead. Domingue hit his first home run as a Muskie, South and Backus singled in runs, and Sam Goodrum (Fr.-Fort Collins, Colo.) reached on an infield single and South came in to score after an errant throw to first.

The Green Knights received a home run by Carson Krumrei to lead off the second, but Lakeland starter Owen Fekety (Fr.-Lancaster, Calif.) appeared to have settled in, retiring six straight including three strikeouts over the second and third innings. Trouble arrived in the fourth inning, though, as SNC hit three home runs, including two to chase Fekety from the game.

Mark Othmer also greeted reliever Jacob Riddick (So.-Pickett, Wis.) with a home run to give St. Norbert a 6-4 lead, and the Green Knights added four more runs in the sixth including a three-run homer by Tyler Dean to make it 11-5. Rain began falling in the fifth inning, and the game was called due to rain at the conclusion of the sixth.

Sean Gregorius (So.-Germantown, Wis.) finished with two hits in the second game and three hits on the day. Fekety took the loss, allowing six hits and five runs in 3 1/3 innings with four strikeouts.

Lakeland is back in action Saturday when it travels to face Illinois Tech for a doubleheader starting at noon in Chicago.