The Lawrence University baseball team rallied in the nightcap game to split the Midwest Conference doubleheader with Ripon College last Saturday at Francis field. The Vikings lost the opener 6-4 but triumphed in the next game 7-6. In the second game, freshman Rudy Mueller-Schrader led the team going 3-5, and junior Matt Holliday and freshman Ethan Jones both hit 2-4 for the Vikings. Holliday and senior Brandon Klar had a couple RBI’s as well. Klar, coming off an impressive spring break performance, batted .625 over seven games in Florida. He was 15-24 with a .875 slugging percentage and 3-3 on stolen bases which led him to win the Midwest Conference Athlete of the Week. Senior Craig Batchelor picked up the win with 1.1 innings of relief, while junior Zach Rabideau pitched the final 1.1 innings to earn his third save of the season. Ripon jumped out to a 5-1 lead before Lawrence rallied for six runs in the sixth. Travis Weber started the rally with a homer: his first of the season. Rabideau singled, then Mueller-Schrader doubled and Jones singled to drive in a run. After a strikeout, sophomore Nolan Spencer singled to drive in a run, and Klar followed with a double to score another and tie the game at 5-5. Holliday then delivered a two-run single to put the Vikings up 7-5. With two on and two out in the eighth, Rabideau came in and got a ground out to stop the counterattack. He gave up a single in the ninth but got a pair of ground ball outs to end the game.
