Beloit, Wis - The Ripon College baseball team fell 8-1 in the opening round of the Midwest Conference Baseball Tournament to the No. 3 seed the University of Chicago. The Red Hawks fall to 22-17 on the season while the Maroons improve to 25-16 on the year.

Chicago jumped on the board early as it posted a run in the top of the second off a double, a walk, and a Red Hawks error. The Maroons then tacked on two more runs in the top of the third to make it 3-0 after three innings.

Ripon was held scoreless for five innings until it was able to scratch a run across in the bottom of the sixth. Cormac Madigan got things going when he singled to center and then a ground out by Cam Stampfl allowed him to take second.  With one out and a runner on second, Evan Olson was unable to move the runner up as he flew out to right for the second out of the inning. Madigan later came around to score when Kyler Hickman's RBI single to left made it a 3-1 game.

The Maroons broke the game open in the top of the seventh when they plated three more runs to make it 6-1 and then added pair in the top of the eighth to push the lead to 8-1 to go on to win and advance to the winner's bracket of the tournament.

The Red Hawks had five players tally a hit each with Kaleb Burns recording the team's only extra-base hit (a double).

Ripon's starting pitcher Mitchel Lukasik took the loss on the hill and fell to 6-2 on the year. The sophomore allowed three runs (all earned) on six hits over the course of 5.2 innings of work while fanning four in the process.

Ripon will play No. 4 seed Grinnell College at 2 pm this afternoon in an elimination game. The winner will advance to Saturday.