DE PERE, Wis. - One day after splitting a doubleheader with St. Norbert College, Ripon's baseball team duplicated that feat, taking one of two from the Green Knights in their final games of the 2018 season. The Red Hawks lost the first game 11-1 in seven innings to eliminate them from contention for the MWC Tournament, before winning the nightcap by an 11-5 margin.
Game one saw St. Norbert (22-13, 11-5 MWC) jump out to an early lead with a six-spot in the bottom of the second inning, which was keyed by four hits and one error. Ripon (12-20, 6-10 MWC) scored their only run of the game one inning later on an RBI single by
Michael Barnes. St. Norbert then scored at least one run in each of the next three innings, including three in the sixth to put the game out of reach.
Ripon finished with five hits in the contest, led by a pair of base knocks from
Tyler Nelson, who also scored the team's only run. Barnes,
Nick Taranto, and
Hector Aguinaga were responsible for the team's other hits. St. Norbert finished with 14 hits, with all nine batters in their lineup reaching base, eight of them with at least one hit.
In the second game of the day, it was Ripon's turn to bat around, pounding out 17 hits, with all but one of their nine starters registering at least one hit, and seven batters posting a multi-hit game.
All but one of their hits came in the final six innings, which allowed St. Norbert to take an early 4-0 lead after scoring twice in both the first and second innings. Ripon got on the board in the top of the fourth on a fielder's choice, but St. Norbert got that run back in the bottom of the inning to take a 5-1 lead.
After the fourth inning, Ripon's bats awoke, as they scored three runs on three hits in the fifth, which included RBIs by Taranto and
Josh Oswald, and a run scoring when Nelson crossed the plate on an error. The Red Hawks added another run in the sixth on an RBI double by
Ben Folger to tie the score at five.
Ripon took their first lead of the day in the seventh on an RBI single off the bat of Oswald, who would later score on a fielder's choice. Three more Ripon runs crossed the plate in the eighth, with two coming on a single by Taranto. Barnes drove in the other with a fielder's choice. The Red Hawks added an insurance run in the ninth on an RBI single by Folger.
Oswald and Folger each finished with three hits, while Barnes, Taranto,
Riley Erickson, and
Keegan Johnston each recorded two hits. Taranto added a game-high three RBI, while finishing the season with a conference-best batting average of .415.
Garrett Kaczrowski (1-1) earned his first collegiate win, allowing three runs on seven hits and striking out two without walking a batter in seven innings of relief.
Ripon finishes the season with 41 stolen bases, which ranks 10th in program history and is the most in a season since 2006.
