PLYMOUTH, Wis. – Lakeland University scored four times in the sixth inning to answer a rally by Marian University, and the Muskies finished Senior Day with a 6-3 win in the second game of the teams' doubleheader to close out the regular season Saturday afternoon.
Lakeland closed the day with a split with the Sabres after falling 3-2 in the first game. The Muskies finished the regular season 24-15-1 overall and 16-8 in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference, and ensured they will finish ahead of Marian in the final standings with the Sabres closing the regular season 18-18 overall and 15-9 in the NACC.
Lakeland ensured at least a tie for fourth in the conference and will be the No. 4 or No. 5 seed in the NACC Tournament next week. The Muskies now wait for Aurora University to finish its season Sunday with two games against Alverno College, and the Spartans with two wins will tie Lakeland and would win the No. 4 seed based on conference tiebreakers.
Lakeland came oh-so-close to sweeping or being swept on Saturday, with both games against Marian coming down to the final innings. The Muskies led most of the day and were ahead entering the seventh inning of the opener and into the fifth in the second game, only for the Sabres to twice come back late.
Marian trailed 2-0 entering the fifth in the second contest but tied the game when Aubrey Bender hit a two-out, two-run single up the middle, and the Sabres took the lead in the sixth when Erin Cowe led off with a ground-rule double, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Hope Matta's single. It was a familiar story for Lakeland after it had seen the Sabres score twice in the seventh inning of the first game to come from behind, with back-to-back singles by Mackenzie Christofferson and Savannah Knuth giving the guests their first lead of the game on the way to stealing the opener.
The Muskies fought back in the second game with an even better rally of their own.
Kendyll Holub (
Jr.-Sturtevant, Wis.) hit a one-out double down the left field line and
Madelyn Abler (
Fr.-Random Lake, Wis.) reached on a throwing error with Holub moving to third.
Callie Linders (
Jr.-Griffith, Ind.) followed lifting a fly to deep center field that carried over the head of center fielder Matta, scoring both Holub and Abler to put Lakeland ahead 4-3.
Lakeland wasn't done as
Carlie Morrow (
Sr.-Menasha, Wis.) followed with a triple into the gap in left center to score Linders and make it 5-3, and the senior came in to score when
Lexi Howard (
So.-Crown Point, Ind.) reached on an error, Marian's second error of the inning and fifth of the game. Staked with a 6-3 lead,
Addison Dierschow (
Fr.-Sycamore, Ill.) held off the Sabres in the seventh, allowing a pair of walks but getting a ground out to end the game.
Linders went 2-for-4 with two runs scored in the second game and Howard reached all four times up, including a pair of singles while also driving in two runs. Dierschow earned the win in relief, throwing two hitless innings and working around three walks to improve to 4-1 this season.
The Muskies took a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning of the first game when
Abby Heitman (
Sr.-St. Francis, Wis.) hit the second of her three doubles on the day, this one driving in Howard with the game's first run, and
Sam Marchant (
Jr.-Green Bay, Wis.) followed with a single to score Heitman.
Marian finished with 14 hits in the first game, though, all coming from the third inning on, and the regular base runners finally broke Lakeland late. Three hits and an error in the sixth produced the Sabres' first run, and four consecutive singles in the seventh brought in the tying and go-ahead runs.
Heitman went 3-for-3 in the first game including two doubles and
Sydney Meyer (
Sr.-Crown Point, Ind.) added two hits.
Natalie Ziebell (So.-New Holstein, Wis.) pitched six innings and allowed 10 hits and one unearned run, while
Jacie Jones (
Sr.-Sauk Prairie, Wis.) pitched the seventh and took the loss, allowing four hits and two runs before striking out two.
The games were the final at home for seven Lakeland seniors: Heitman, Jones, Marchant, Meyer, Morrow,
Grace Portenier (
Sheboygan, Wis.) and
Kamrynn Wiltzius (
Sheboygan, Wis.), including Heitman, Meyer, Morrow, Portenier and Wiltzius as four-year members of the team who have been part of 94 wins in their career.
The Muskies open play in the NACC Tournament in Montgomery, Ill., on Thursday, with their opponent and time of first game still to be determined.
