MONTGOMERY, Ill. - Ripon's baseball team faced one of their toughest challenges of the young 2021 season Sunday afternoon, as they battled 16th-ranked Aurora University in a doubleheader. Aurora won the first game 12-1, before completing the sweep with a 12-4 victory in game two.

In the day's first game, Aurora (7-0) jumped on the board early with an RBI single in the bottom of the first. The Spartans would add two more runs in the second before Ripon got on the board in the third on an RBI by Andrew Betcher. Aurora would break the game open in the fourth, scoring four runs on four hits to take a 7-1 lead, en route to the 12-1 victory.

Ripon (2-7) was limited to three hits in the game, coming off the bats of Keegan Johnston, Owen Greene, and Evan Barbian. Aurora finished with 14 hits in the contest.

Game two saw Aurora jump on the board early once again, scoring three times in both the first and second innings to take a 6-0 lead. Ripon cut into that lead with a four-spot in the top of the fourth on RBI by Jakob Williams, Andrew DeMatteo, Anthony Zak, and Betcher. That would be as close as the Red Hawks would get the rest of the day, as Aurora added another run in the fifth and five more in the seventh.

Ripon recorded seven hits in game two, led by Greene's 2-for-3 performance. Also registering hits for the Red Hawks were Jake Pankratz, Johnston, DeMatteo, Zak, and Betcher.

Ripon will try to rebound Wednesday at Benedictine (Ill.). That doubleheader will begin at 1 p.m. in Joliet, Ill., with LiveStats available at https://benueagles.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary.