PLYMOUTH, Wis. –
Bryce Backus (
So.-Kenosha, Wis.) singled in the winning run with two outs in the 10th inning to complete an improbable comeback by the Lakeland University baseball team in a 9-8 victory over Benedictine University on a frigid Friday afternoon to close the Muskies' season.
Lakeland rallied from six runs down to win the first game before the Eagles dominated the second game in a 16-0, seven-inning decision. The Muskies closed out their season with a 14-26 overall record and finished 7-17 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, while with the split on the day Benedictine (16-24 overall, 10-14 NACC) clinched the final spot in the NACC Tournament.
Lakeland scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the game to extra innings with a two-out rally for the ages. Eagles reliever Connor Kehoe came on in the ninth and retired the first two hitters, but Backus,
Sean Gregorius (
So.-Germantown, Wis.) and
Chris Finn (
Jr.-Mapleton, Ill.) all hit singles, including Finn reaching on an infield single to load the bases.
Sawyer Laffoon (
So.-Sheldon, Ill.) then walked with the bases loaded to draw the Muskies within 8-4, and after a conference at the mound
Mikey Hernandez (
Jr.-Lennox, Calif.) stepped to the plate. The junior had already reached base in each of his first four plate appearances, and on his fifth he crushed the first pitch from Kehoe to left field for a tape-measure grand slam home run, his first grand slam for Lakeland and tying the score at 8-8.
Byron Lupian (
Jr.-Corona, Calif.) gave up a single but no further damage and retired Benedictine in the top of the 10th. The bottom of the inning started with freshman
Gavin Larson (
Westby, Wis.), a defensive replacement in the ninth inning, batting for the first time this season and hitting a single into the hole to shortstop for a base hit in his first collegiate at bat. Larson then stole second, moved to third on a ground out by
J.T. Cortinas (
Jr.-Chino Hills, Calif.), and Backus followed with a flare to right that dropped a few feet off the foul line to send in Larson with the winning run and the Muskies' second straight 10-inning win, after also topping Edgewood University in the second game of a doubleheader on Monday.
Hernandez finished going 4-for-4 with a walk, five RBIs and two runs scored and Backus finished 4-for-5 with three runs scored. Lupian pitched 2 2/3 scoreless innings in relief, allowing two hits and striking out two to earn his first victory for Lakeland.
The second game was one to forget for the Muskies, as the Eagles scored twice in the first inning, six times in the second and then seven more in the third in blowing the game wide open. An error led to two unearned runs in the first inning, and Benedictine strung together seven hits in the second and took advantage of three walks in the fourth.
Lakeland was held to three hits in the second game, with Gregorius and seniors
Jacob Wollschlager (
Kenosha, Wis.) and
Chris Day (
Victorville, Calif.) the lone to reach on hits, and the Muskies saw their two best chances to score go by the wayside. Lakeland put runners on first and second with no outs in the third after hits by Wollschlager and Day before the next three batters failed to reach, and the Muskies loaded the bases with nobody out in the sixth but again failed to score after a strikeout and an inning-ending lineout double play.
Lakeland's 14 wins still rank as the program's most since 2022 and are a three-win improvement from last year's 11-28 mark. The Muskies also have improved their win total each of the last three seasons after a seven-win campaign in 2023 that was the program's fewest wins in a full season since a 4-19 mark in 1989.
