Lawrence University’s baseball team completed a three match clean sweep of traveling opponents Cornell College on Sunday, May 4 to outright win the Midwest Conference Championship.
The Vikings were inspired by an exuberant home crowd en route to their dazzling victory at Whiting Field. Things got off with a bang, with the first inning seeing both teams race to two runs each. Cornell helped themselves to a double, Mason Sellers’ hit making way for Vince Zipperer and Kale Rose to dash through home plate. Lawrence endeavoured to an equaliser, senior Taylor Freeman and first-year Sage Beebe-Jenny setting things all level.
The fourth inning saw the crowd entertained by a moment of carelessness, as the Vikings took advantage of a wild pitch from Cornell’s man in the middle which allowed Shane Santaga to slide past the catcher to make it safe. 4-2 up on the scoreboard, 4th inning closed and 5th starting, Lawrence fancied themselves to put the game out of reach. But things didn’t start so smoothly.
Cornell gave themselves a boost with the fast break of Beals bringing the game to 4-3. Then, a doubled repetition of their previous mistake from Lawrence saw the Iowa natives advance to home and equal the match at 4-4. Filled with a renewed vigour after the pair of wild pitches, the Vikings sent first-year Shane Santaga up to bat with the bases loaded to swing things back in their favour. What came next was a perfect connection between his bat and the ball as he sent it flying all the way out of the park. Just like that, the Vikings were now leading the game by five and a cracking homerun from Freeman moments later put the match firmly in their hands at 10-4.
What followed from here was an assured pitching performance from senior William Polanco. The infielder did a more than convincing job standing in for Lawrence’s usual pitchers and, bar a slight comeback in the final inning, saw his team through to a resounding victory against Cornell. The ensuing cries of satisfaction from Lawrence players and fans alike conveyed the high importance of today’s contest in the Viking’s season. Now, with a second consecutive championship in the bag, Lawrence will be looking forward to their opening berth in the MWC tournament. The Appleton community will be excitedly watching how they fare.