RIPON, Wisconsin – The Ripon baseball program split a home doubleheader with Monmouth on Saturday afternoon, falling to the Scots 12-6 before rebounding for a 13-3 win in eight innings at Francis Field.
 
Ripon (16-22, 9-11 MWC) used a two-out rally in the opening inning to jump on top. After a single and a walk, Alex Pankratz singled home Jack Anderson for the early lead. Then in the third, the Red Hawks took advantage of two runners in scoring position with nobody out. Consecutive sacrifice flies by Anderson and Kyler Hickman opened up a 3-0 advantage one-third of the way through the game.
 
Monmouth (17-19, 12-8 MWC) got a run back on a fielder's choice in the top of the fourth, but Ripon scored twice in the bottom half of the inning on an error and a Clark sacrifice fly. 
 
Trailing 5-1, Monmouth evened the score in the top of the seventh on an RBI double, an error and a two-run homer. The Scots then took the lead in the eighth, but it was short lived. With two outs, Brock Peterson singled home Chase Hanselman to knot the score at six.
 
Monmouth pulled in front for good in the ninth, putting up six runs. Ripon had a baserunner on in the ninth, but was unable to cross home in dropping game one.
 
Hanselman (2x4, 2 runs) and Peterson (2x4, RBI, run) combined for four of Ripon's seven hits. Blaine Wahlen was terrific on the mound, throwing 7+ innings. He allowed eight hits and three earned runs with eight strikeouts. Orion Rieden took the loss, giving up one earned run over one inning.
 
Ripon jumped on Monmouth in the first inning of game two as Hickman singled home Jason Clark with one out. The lead increased to 4-0 in the second, as David Kleier singled home Gabriel Zielinski, Peterson scored on an error and Kleier crossed home on an Olson sacrifice fly.
 
Monmouth scored one run in the top of the third, but Peterson singled home Pankratz to boost Ripon's lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the third.
 
The Scots scored twice in the third, but reliever Rex Bayer stranded the tying run on base to end the frame. Run-scoring singles by Olson and Hickman doubled Ripon's lead in the sixth.
 
After Bayer tossed scoreless seventh and eighth innings, Ripon emphatically ended the game with six runs in the eighth. Anderson singled home Kleier before Remington Cox drove home two on the next at-bat. With the bases loaded, Hanselman walked off the Scots with a bases-clearing double as Ripon took game two.
 
Pounding out 17 hits in the game, Clark (3x4, 3 runs, walk) and Pankratz (3x5, 2 runs) each had three-hit outings. Hickman (2x4, 2 RBI, run, walk), Peterson (2x4, RBI, run) and Kleier (2x3, RBI, 3 runs) also had multi-hit games.
 
Matt Miller got the start and the win on the mound, throwing 5.1 innings. He allowed six hits and three earned runs, punching out five. Bayer tossed the final 2.2 innings and did not allow a hit.
 
NEXT UP: Ripon hosts Monmouth on Sunday, May 4 for its Senior Day game and home finale beginning at noon.
 
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