VERONA, Wis. – The Edgewood College baseball team secured the third seed for the NACC Baseball Tournament with a split with Aurora University in their final conference doubleheader on Senior Day. Edgewood College had 13 hits in the first game to record a 6-3 victory. In the night cap, Aurora scored runs in four straight innings and salvaged a split with a 9-5 win.
Edgewood College (18-19, 12-8 NACC) starting pitcher Nate Averill escaped some first inning trouble with just one run allowed and then settled in for eight strong innings. He only struck out one, but limited Aurora to just single runs in any inning. Averill improved to 3-2 on the season with his 100-pitch effort.
The Eagles tied the game at 1-1 in the second on a perfectly placed Brodie Engel squeeze bunt. They took the lead for good in the third when Brad Clark drove home Andrew Laurtizen with a sacrifice fly, and then Peter Hefty's RBI single to bring home Zack Creekmore.
Aurora University (22-18, 11-9 NACC) added a run in the sixth, but the Eagles put the game out of reach in the bottom of the same inning. Hefty walked to open the inning, moved to second on Engel's sacrifice and scored when the Spartans threw the ball away following Danny Appino's bunt single. Creekmore drove in Appino with an RBI single and Clark plated Lauritzen with a base hit for a 6-2 Eagles lead.
Aurora scored one run in the seventh inning, but AJ Verhage came on in relief of Averill in the ninth to close the door. Verhage worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his fifth save of the season, tying the Edgewood College single season record.
Lauritzen and Creekmore had three hits apiece, with Lauritzen adding a stolen base. Manning and Hefty each had two hits, while Nick Lehner added a double for the Eagles only extra base hit of the game.
In the second game, Creekmore unloaded his third home run of the season to tie the game at 1-1 in the second inning, but that was as close as the Eagles would get. Aurora's Dillon Popovich blasted a three-run home run to right center to put the Spartans ahead 4-1. Lauritzen scored an RBI single in the third, but it wouldn't be enough to keep pace, as Aurora led 8-2 after five innings.
The Eagles picked up two more runs in the sixth on a Hefty RBI single and a run-scoring ground out from Appino. Edgewood College's final score came in the ninth when Lauritzen doubled to bring home Pat Manning.
Lauritzen had three hits, including his 15th and 16th doubles of the season. He is two doubles short of the Edgewood College school record of 18 held jointly by Pat Kelter (2002) and Travis Krahn (2004). Creekmore, Hefty and Jacob Yellovich each had two hits in the game. Creekmore's solo home run brought his season RBI total to 48, just three short of the record held by Kelter (2002) and Andrew Handorf (2006). Manning scored a hit in his final at-bat to extend his streak of reaching base safely to 28 straight games, just three short of Creekmore's school record set earlier this season. Andy Swanson took the loss for the Eagles pitching four innings.
The Eagles have three non-conference games remaining. Two are tomorrow at UW-La Crosse and a home finale set for Monday at 5:00 against the University of Chicago. Monday's game is Veterans Appreciation Day which will raise money for the Edgewood College Student Veterans Association. The Eagles will begin postseason play in the NACC Tournament on Thursday, May 7 against fourth-seeded Concordia University Wisconsin at Kapco Park in Mequon at 1:00 p.m.
