Baseball falls to Carroll in final games of the season

Bethany Larsen

Last Thursday, the Viking men’s baseball team played a double-header against Carroll University at the Whiting Field.  The Lawrence team went 0-2 for the day with scores of 6-10 and 2-5.

The Vikings gave the Pioneers a run for their money in the first game. Carroll was first at bat and started off the game with two runs in the top of the first inning. Vikings responded with two runs in the bottom of the first.  The Pioneers scored twice in the third inning and four times in the fourth. In the top of the fourth inning, the bases were loaded for Carroll with no outs when Aaron Gendrich hit a grand slam to left field.  The score was 2-8 in the bottom of the fourth, but the Vikings came back in an amazing four-run inning to make the score 6-8 in the top of the 5th.  The Vikings put up a fight, but Carroll scored two more times before the end of the game to seal a victory of 10-6. 

The men’s baseball team fought hard in the second game, but they were unable to close in the final two innings.  Both teams were neck and neck for the first seven innings. Carroll scored first with two runs in the top of the second inning.  Lawrence answered with one run in the bottom of the second and one in the bottom of the third. Neither team scored again until the top of the eighth when the Pioneers were able to score three runs. The score was 2-5 as the Vikings took the field in the bottom of the eighth.  The Vikings were unable to score again and the final score of the game was 2-5 Carroll.

Notable performances include freshman Joel Birch at second base, who had five assists in the first game and 6 in the second, and [****?] Sam Kossow at first base, who had 17 putouts in the first game and 15 in the second.

The Vikings finished off their season with a record of 14-21.  When asked to comment on the outcome of the season, senior Eric Bohling noted, “We improved from last year but did not finish the season well. We took a lot of steps to better the program, but we need to keep the momentum going into next year.”  The Viking men’s baseball team’s season had a rough finish, but they are continuing to improve and we can expect great things from these men in the future.